“Gukesh has been quite vulnerable in some games. At the Olympiad he was, well, not vulnerable. He was dominant,” Carlsen told ChessBase India in an interview before adding: “Obviously, Gukesh is a significant favourite. This is one of those matches where if Gukesh strikes first, he will win the match without any trouble. But the longer it goes without a first decisive game, the better it is for Ding. He has the ability. But he doesn’t have the confidence. Anything that can potentially give him that confidence could help him win that match.”

What’s at stake for Gukesh

Carlsen, who recently launched a chess app called Take Take Take, had also predicted on the app’s Daily Take section that Gukesh would win the prestigious event.

Should the Indian teenager be able to fulfill that prophecy, he would become the 18th world chess champion. But more significantly, at the age of 18, he would become the youngest world chess champion in history.

Since becoming world champion against Ian Nepomniachtchi last year, China’s Ding has suffered a dip in form, which he himself has attributed to his mental state. The 14-game world chess championship will start with the first game on November 25.