India, Aug. 23 -- D Gukesh recently fell victim to criticism from Garry Kasparov, who downplayed the Indian GM's World Championship victory in Singapore last year. Kasparov feels that Gukesh can't even be called the strongest player in the world, as he is not even better than Magnus Carlsen yet. The chess legend also feels that Gukesh hasn't proved his superiority over players of his own age, too, and used his defeat to R Praggnanandhaa in the first round of the Sinquefield Cup as an example.

Kasparov also added that Gukesh could not be compared to the likes of him, Carlsen, Anatoly Karpov or Bobby Fischer.

Responding to Kasparov's criticism, Susan Polgar defended Gukesh and said that he deserved to be the current 'World Classical Champ...