Kasparov: 'I don’t treat this as a World Championship match'

Russian chess legend Garry Kasparov. Pic/Getty Images

Russian chess legend Garry Kasparov doesn't consider the upcoming World Championship match between India's D Gukesh and China's Ding Liren as a contest between the world's top two players in the absence of five-time champion Magnus Carlsen.

Kasparov believes with Carlsen, who hails from Norway, opting out of defending his title last year, the long line of world champions has come to an end. "My hottest take is I don't treat this as a World Championship match. For me, a World Championship match was always a match for the title of the best player in the world," Kasparov said on a YouTube show for the St Louis Chess Club.

D Gukesh and Ding Liren

"The history of the World Championship matches started here in St Louis when Steinitz faced Johannes Zukertort in the 1886 World Chess Championship match] and ended with Magnus Carlsen. There were 16 World Champions. You could call them, at every given moment, the best players in the world. They took the title by beating the best players [in the world at that time]," added Kasparov, who however, feels Gukesh is clear favourite.

"With all due respect, Ding Liren playing Gukesh is an important event. It's a FIDE event. I think Gukesh is favourite, because the way Ding Liren has been playing lately, it's kind of a shadow of the old Ding Liren we all remember. If he can recover miraculously, then it will be an interesting fight. But, in any case, it's an event that has nothing to do with the main idea of the World Championship match, to decide, to find the best player on the planet," he said.

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