Nakamura expressed surprise over Gukesh’s play in the tournament so far, saying he was lucky to have survived Carlsen and Erigaisi in Rounds 6 and 7, respectively.
“It’s a very strange term, because his result is very good, but if we’re being objective about chess, I think he’s played horribly. He should have lost to Magnus… he was completely lost against Arjun (Erigaisi).
“Other than the first game against me, and maybe the game against Wei Yi, at some point, he was losing; even Fabiano (Caruana), he (Gukesh) was also losing in that game,” said Nakamura.
“So, it’s very, very hard to judge what his play is, but when I look at his game, one of the big things that he has, that I would say Arjun and R. Praggnanandhaa don’t have, is he’s mentally very strong.
“He’s a lot less emotional than the other two players, and that has served him very well, especially in this tournament, so it’s a mixed bag.”
Nakamura added, “I think his defensive skills are very good, like in this game, I thought there were probably three or four moments when I was winning, and then I had to still find more moves to convert, so he’s definitely showing very strong defensive skills.” ‘India is the next Soviet Union of chess’
Nakamura gave a strong indication that this could be his last appearance in Norway Chess, and that he had probably played his final classical game against Carlsen. He also averred that “the future of chess is in India.”
“India is basically the new Soviet Union as far as chess goes. You have Gukesh, you have Arjun, you have Praggnanandhaa, I think Aravindh (Chithambaram) just broke into the top-10, if I’m not mistaken.
“If I look forward to the next 5-10 years, Indians are going to dominate chess, there’s no doubt about it,” he said.