‘Not part of this circus anymore’: Magnus Carlsen’s shocker, says not interested in challenging D Gukesh

Gukesh Dommaraju might have become the youngest world champion after defeating Ding Liren, but Magnus Carlsen is not interested in challenging the 18-year-old Indian for the throne. Magnus who relinquished his title in 2022 due to a “lack of motivation”, said that he is not a “part of this circus anymore” hence he has no interest in having a match with Gukesh for the ultimate title.

However, Magnus did congratulate Gukesh for showing a stellar performance against Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship. He also said that Gukesh was always the favourite for him to win the match.

“It’s not going to be me. I mean, let’s talk about Gukesh and the match and so on. I’m not part of this circus anymore,” Carlsen said on the Take Take Take YouTube channel.

“Of course, this was something that was a bit unexpected. A lot of us thought that Gukesh was the favourite to win the match, but this was a game that never really took off. Gukesh was clearly fighting for the win. I think he was doing an excellent job to keep the game alive,” he added.

Speaking further about the match, Magnus Carlsen stated, “But it all happened very, very suddenly. And that, I think, is what he explained later as well, that he was a little bit on autopilot, expecting it to go to tyre brakes, and all of a sudden you get this chance, and it’s all over.”

‘Ding raised his level’

Magnus Carlsen was also quick to praise China’s Ding Liren for his showing in the entire match against Gukesh. “You can say all you will about Ding and the way that he played, but he actually did raise his level during this match.”

For the uninitiated, Gukesh had captured everyone’s imagination after he won the eight-man Candidates tournament in Toronto, becoming the youngest-ever challenger for the world championship.

“And yet, for all we’ve said about how we probably did expect even more for Gukesh. It feels like he has had more. He’s had very good moments, he’s had some really weak ones as well, but he is overall, I think, he deserved,” said Carlsen.

“And especially when we look at the way he got here. First, he was down in the feeder circuit and won the tournament in Chennai on demand to get here. Then he had an amazing performance in the candidates’ tournament, played, I think, one of the better tournaments that we’ve seen in recent years there, had a great Olympiad, even though that wasn’t part of the cycle,” he added.