Gukesh is smart enough to ignore all the external noise: Prasanna

Indian GM's former coach expects an interesting match against reigning world champ Liren

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

OVER the past few months, Ding Liren, the current world champion, has wasted little time in telling everybody that he's the underdog to retain the title. The 32-year-old, who has one Classical win in 2024, in an interview to Kaja Snare on YouTube earlier this week, spoke on similar lines. "Worried about losing badly," the Chinese player said.

Vishnu Prasanna, Gukesh's former coach, doesn't expect talk like that to catch the 18-year-old off guard. "I'm sure Gukesh is smart enough to not take it too seriously," he told select media during the ongoing Chennai Grand Masters event on Friday. In a wide-ranging interaction, Prasanna spoke about his current role vis-a-vis Gukesh and why his recent interactions with him have mostly been 'nonsense'. Excerpts:

On the last few months