Vishy Anand’s advice to Gukesh: ‘Lock yourself in room, and just ignore criticism… but some of it is legitimate’ | Chess News
3 min readApr 21, 2026 06:32 PM IST Current world champion D Gukesh has experienced a wretched run of form ever since he became the youngest world champion in chess history in December 2024. Not only have results been dire, Gukesh has also lost about 51 rating points from where he was when he became the 18th world champion in chess history. To further pile pressure on him, former world champions like Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen have pointed out how Javokhir Sindarov, who will be the challenger to Gukesh for the world champion’s throne later this year, will be the favorite given his recent form that helped him win the Candidates tournament in Cyprus without a single defeat in 14 rounds. Some of the comments have appeared to undermine Gukesh’s credentials as a worthy world champion. Carlsen, in particular, commented on Gukesh’s “very obvious weaknesses when it comes to his understanding” in a recent event. Carlsen had even said that Sindarov would be the favourite against Gukesh. When five-time world champion and Gukesh’s mentor, …






