is Gukesh a better player than Magnus Carlson

Better? No. Best? Yes. Hes the world champion.

Perhaps someday. But not today.

No. Maybe in the future, but he's still too young to become the best.

He's not better than Magnus. He's called world champion but EVERYBODY knows Magnus is the best player. A player can be called world champion but overall RESULTS matter more. Any of us can be called world champion. Gukesh and Magnus have both played events in the last year, some were the same event, and it's clear who the better player is.

Carlsen is 63 points higher in Classical, 122 points higher in Rapid, and 268 points higher in Blitz. I'm not even sure if Gukesh is the best player from India.

not a chance not even a debate

No, at least, not yet. Magnus remains the best player in the world by a considerable margin. 2nd through to 10th and perhaps further are all closer to each other than they are to him. Magnus is only not the world champion anymore because he chose to step away. Is Magnus as good as he once was? Probably not. But he has a genuine right to consider himself the best or second best player to ever play. Gukesh is incredible (particularly at classical chess) and is a hell of a talent - I hope he becomes a dominant force in his own right - but he’s not as good as Magnus.

Magnus is also ranked #1 in EVERY time control AND ALSO in freestyle (Fischer Random/ 960). That's out of this world great. He's ranked #1 in all those at the same time. Really think about that. All at the same time. I don't think Gukesh has been close to #1 in any of those rankings ever. Not once, ever.

Plus Gukesh beat the #22 ranked player who also never won a candidates tournament. Let that sink in, the winner of the match never beat a player who even won the candidates tournament! Ridiculous. The world championship title has little meaning right now. I think even Garry Kasparov agrees, he said something about if the title match doesn't have Magnus in it then it's not really a world title match.

Overall Magnus is much better than Gukesh, and the only reason Gukesh has beat Magnus is that he hasn't crumbled under the pressure inflicted by playing Magnus, but Magnus is much better.

No

Given that Carlson is virtually unknown, yes.

No but Gukesh is excellent.

The topic is not about Carlsen. Read the title again.

He certainly is. That guy Carlson isn't even 2000-rated.

Also consider that there's a new freestyle ranking list that correlates very closely with the regular classical fide ranking list. With Carlen at #1, Nakamura at #2, Caruana at #3, etc. (this is the freestyle rankings, matching the fide classical list EXACTLY. Not a coincidence.)

Ahem, Gukesh is ranked #26 in freestyle. Nuff said.

So does it correlate very closely or not? Gukesh being 26th suggests that it doesn't.

Freestyle is an ultra-marginal thing, a vanity project of some billionaire guy. Freestyle ratings are roughly as relevant as football (soccer) skill - in which Magnus is probably the best of the top chess players.

It correlates very closely. Here is the freestyle ranking list: Although they haven't updated it to reflect the Vegas event yet. This is current as of right before round 1 of Vegas. There are 578 players on the ranking list but this is the top 100.

https://www.freestyle-chess.com/freestyle-elo-table/

Freestyle isn't a marginal thing, it's actually MORE of a test of chess skill than regular chess precisely because the starting positions are random forcing players to think on their own from move 1 onward. In regular chess, players are memorizing long lines of opening theory & not even thinking for themselves. What this tells me about Gukesh is that yes, he's among the elite in the world, but if his opening memorization is removed & he has to think on his own from the start, he's not top 10. In a real war (& chess is a war game) the different armies don't start at the EXACT same positions every time. Each side also has to think for themselves from move 1 onward.

Claiming that Gukesh is good because of opening prep is ridiculous. The opposite is true, he often gets equal-ish positions and pushes them to victory by taking risks in the middlegame.

So why is he worse in freestyle? Who knows. Maybe he doesn't take it seriously (as no one should). Maybe he lost some of his motivation after winning the title.

I didn't claim Gukesh was good only because of opening prep. I clearly said he's not top 10 in true tests of chess skill but that he's among the elite in the world. You might want to slow down when you re-read that so you can understand it a bit better.

Also, it appears that his rankings in both rapid & blitz are correlating more closely with the freestyle data so maybe the anomaly or outlier is the classical ranking. So when anyone takes into account he beat a player in the "title" match that was ranked #22 AND whom had never even won a candidates tournament it all starts forming a picture that he's not really world champion caliber.