Spanish GM Alexei Shirov commented on Gukesh Dommaraju’s title in an interview with ChessBase India. Shirov says that chess should not have a World Champion title. Alexei notes that he has nothing against Gukesh. Shirov spoke about it after his loss to Gukesh at the Chess Olympiad 2026.

Alexei Shirov

Alexei Shirov

Spanish GM

“[Question: Can you tell us about the game against the World Champion?]

Maybe we shouldn’t use the words like ‘World Champion’. Because I think chess should be like tennis. In chess you should have a circuit like in tennis, and all this. But going for 200 years history is just damaging chess in general.

So, it’s nothing against Gukesh. He’s of course a great guy, a great player, a formidable player. But I don’t like this term ‘World Champion’ at all.

But okay, the game against Gukesh was interesting. Always who makes the last mistake loses the game. So, this was me making the last mistake.”

The Chess Olympiad 2026 takes place from September 16 to 27 in Samarkand, Uzbekistan. Gukesh Dommaraju has not lost a single game in 6 rounds of the event. Team India is in 7th place with 10 points and 113 tiebreak points.

Credit: Michal Walusza / FIDE