READ MORE: In an exclusive interview, Grzegorz Gajewski tells The Indian Express how Gukesh’s backroom team helped him become the youngest world chess champion ever

Magnus praised Gukesh for his impressive performance and said he deserved to become the world chess champion.

“Of course it was a little unexpected,” he said.

“Many of us thought Gukesh was the favorite to win but that game never really got going. Gukesh was clearly fighting for the win. I think he did a great job keeping the game alive. But it all happened very, very suddenly. And I think he explained that later on, that he was a little bit on autopilot and expected things to hit the brakes, and suddenly you get this chance and it’s all over,” Magnus said in Game 14.

Magnus also praised Ding Liren’s resistance.

“You can say anything about Ding and his style of play, but he actually raised his level in this game,” he said.

In April, earlier this year, Gukesh stunned the world by winning the eight-man Candidates Tournament in Toronto and becoming the youngest-ever challenger for the World Championship. He took first place in a stacked field that included Ian Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana.

“And yet, despite what we’ve said about it, we probably expected more from Gukesh. It feels like he had more. He had very good moments, he also had some really weak moments, but overall I think he deserves it. And especially when we look at the way he got here. At first he was in the feeder circuit, won the tournament in Chennai on demand to come here. Then he had an amazing performance in the Candidates Tournament, played, I think, one of the better tournaments we’ve seen there in recent years, and put on a great Olympics even if that wasn’t part of the cycle. So overall it’s extremely impressive, even if this game and the way it ended was perhaps not as compelling as people would have thought from the start.”