Magnus Carlsen says Gukesh did the same mistake he made against Vishy Anand in 2014
Hikaru Nakamura thinks early celebration in the Indian camp might have cost Gukesh Game 12.
Hikaru Nakamura thinks early celebration in the Indian camp might have cost Gukesh Game 12.
Hikaru Nakamura thinks early celebration in the Indian camp might have cost Gukesh Game 12.
Magnus Carlsen seems to understand what went wrong for young Indian challenger D Gukesh in Game 12 of his World Chess Championship match against Ding Liren. Gukesh allowed Ding back into the contest just a day after taking a decisive lead in the match.
World No. 1 Carlsen thinks Gukesh experienced the same thing he did before Game 3 of his 2014 World Chess Championship match against Viswanathan Anand.
After crushing Anand 6.5-3.5 in the 2013 edition, Carlsen met the veteran Indian again for the title clash. Carlsen took an early lead by winning the second game but then made a fatal error in the next game by letting his guard down. "This reminds me of my match against Anand in 2014," Carlsen shared his thoughts during his post-game analysis with American Super GM Hikaru Nakamura on 'take take take', an app he is co-promoting.
"I'm looking at somebody who didn't beat me in 11 games in the first match, and I feel like I'm outplaying him again," Carlsen recollected his thoughts about the 2014 match against Anand. "Then I think it is kind of over, I don't see how he can beat me. For some reason, I have a little bit of crisis. Then he plays an amazing game and crushes me completely. At that point, I had all of the negative thoughts that Gukesh might have now. I made this stupid decision; I gave him an open goal.
"That was an incredibly difficult match. I won it, but honestly, he was putting more pressure on me than I was on him. So I can imagine that Gukesh, for all his mental strength, he must be feeling the same.... he probably thought the same way, that this match is over, that Ding cannot touch me with the white pieces at all," Carlsen said.
Early celebration
American Nakamura, the World No. 3, gave a different perspective. He thought the celebratory mood set by the Indian contingent in Singapore after Gukesh won Game 11 was a bad move. "When he won yesterday, a lot of the comments in the press conference from the Indian journalists were as though it was a celebratory press conference after he had won the match. Everyone was really joyous. I think that probably didn't help the situation because it is easier to lose focus, especially when Ding's been playing so poorly, to feel like you have it wrapped up," Nakamura said.
Both Carlsen and Nakamura were critical of Gukesh's team for their apparent shallow preparation, which allowed Ding to dominate from the opening. "The opening cost him," Nakamura said. "Gukesh just put himself in a very bad situation from early on," Carlsen added.
"The quality of play (in the whole match) has mostly been very good, and then this thing about it being one of the most accurate world championships of all-time. But everything has to be viewed in context, right? He (Ding) didn't make any mistakes, but there was zero pressure on him. It was a complete and utter failure from Gukesh in this tournament situation, to basically play for the draw (in Game 12)," Carlsen said.