India, June 4 -- Since becoming the world champion in 2024, D Gukesh has been on the receiving end of criticism from active chess players and legends like Garry Kasparov. Kasparov feels that since world No. 1 Magnus Carlsen relinquished the World C'ship title in 2022, he ended the era of classical chess champions. But Gukesh's coach, Grzegorz Gajewski, feels that such criticism hasn't 'affected' him at all.

"Gukesh won fair and square, but you can hardly call him the strongest player in the world. I don't want to sound offensive, but I think Magnus ended the era of classical world champions. Gukesh's world championship title is very different. It's still clear that Magnus is the strongest, and Gukesh is yet to prove his superiority over ...