D Gukesh’s historic win against Ding Liren in Singapore sent the world into a state of frenzy as the 18-year-old became the youngest-ever world chess champion. The Indian grandmaster defeated defending champion Liren in the decisive fourteenth game of the World Chess Championship. The win saw Gukesh also become the second Indian to ever win the World Championship title, with Viswanathan Anand claiming it five times.

Former chess players, celebrities and fans took to social media to hail Gukesh. But it also received a negative response from some, including Magnus Carlsen. Widely regarded as one of the greatest players in history, Carlsen downplayed Gukesh’s achievement and also rejected a possibility of challenging him for the title. Recently, Carlsen also called the classical chess format the worst way to decide the best player.

Speaking to The Hindu after Gukesh’s win vs Liren, the Indian grandmaster’s chief trainer Grzegorz Gajewski decided to compare him to Carlsen. The Polish grandmaster feels that Gukesh has the ability to mimic Carlsen’s playing style, but also stated that he would never be like the Norwegian grandmaster.

“He will never be a player like Magnus Carlsen in the sense of being an intuitive kind of a player,” he said.

“He likes to calculate and he likes to go deep into position. He doesn’t like to make moves just purely based on intuition. He will never play in the Magnus style, but he can very well mimic it,” he added.

When asked if Gukesh is one of the best when it comes to calculation in chess, he replied, “Vishy [Anand]. In terms of talent for calculation, perhaps no one in the history of the game could match him. But at the same time, he was so fast that sometimes it became his weakness. Gukesh somewhat resembles a young Fabiano Caruana.”

Gajewski was a second to Anand in the World Chess Championship in 2014 in Sochi. He has also worked as Anand’s second in other events too. Since the COVID-19 pandemic, he has taken up a role at the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy in India, and has been working with players. Since 2023, he has also been Gukesh’s second, assisting him at the 2024 Candidates too, which saw him qualify for a title face-off with Liren.