Since his historic victory against Ding Liren at the World Chess Championship last year, D Gukesh has been receiving a certain amount of flak from the likes of Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik and others.

Carlsen and Kramnik criticised the quality of his World Championship match vs Liren, especially after a massive blunder from Liren in the decisive game saw Gukesh seal his victory.

Then at the Weissenhaus Freestyle Chess Grand Slam event, Gukesh was decimated and remained winless, also losing to Carlsen. After his win, Carlsen soaked in glory and pointed out how Gukesh failed to challenge him in their game.

D Gukesh responds to criticism

Speaking during a recent interview with The Times of India, Gukesh opened up on his approach to criticism thrown at him. The 18-year-old said, "In my personal view, when you reach the World Championship game, you are bound to face criticism, and people are free to say whatever they want. I will continue to do my job."

"Also, I'm not on social media, so a lot of negative things don't reach me easily. But I do come across some negative comments, and they only motivate me."

Gukesh also revealed how his World Championship preparation changed him as a player. "I am mostly playing my normal game. The kind of preparations I made for the World Championship have played a role in my subsequent tournaments, helping me a lot in the matches I'm playing now. Of course, I'm taking one match at a time and not stressing about other things," he said.

Gukesh's victory in Singapore saw him become the youngest-ever world champion in history, and India's second after Viswanathan Anand. He was in action at the Tata Masters in Wijk aan Zee in January, where he finished in second position, after losing to R Praggnanandhaa in the tie-breaker title-deciding round. According to the FIDE rankings, he is the current classical World No. 3, behind leader Carlsen and second-placed Hikaru Nakamura. He is also the current India No. 1.