Magnus Carlsen has recently lost to India’s D Gukesh at the Norway Chess tournament. Despite the defeat, Carlsen, who eventually clinched the title, said the younger generation of players have plenty of flaws in their game.

India’s chess star Tania Sachdev asked Carlsen who he thinks can replicate his dominance. In his response, Carlsen said, “There is no one at the moment. That is the honest answer. I think Gukesh showed in this tournament that he is on track,” Carlsen said.

Carlsen also said Gukesh has a bright future. “Maybe he’s not way ahead of track as we may have thought. I think he’s a bit like where I was in 2008-2009. He can do extremely well. The great results come not only with the quality of the positional play, but with a lot of fighting qualities,” Carlsen added.

Carlsen is regarded as one of the greatest chess players, and has held the No. 1 ranking in the FIDE world chess rankings for nearly 14 years since July 1, 2011.

“That’s how kids are supposed to be. You’re not supposed to master everything at that age. As for the others, they’re good but the likelihood of one of them becoming a clear number one, I don’t see very clearly. At the moment, I think the older guys are better,” Carlsen stated.

“Every single one of them has very clear flaws and that’s how it’s supposed to be at their age. Once-in-a-generation talents are once-in-a-generation talents for a reason – it’s not that easy,” Carlsen said further.

Despite his win against Carlsen, reigning world champion Gukesh lost the title after he went down to American Fabiano Caruana in the final round. Gukesh’s loss meant Carlsen won the tournament.