Karjakin tied magnus in the previous championship, is the same age as magnus, and is still ranked in the top 10, and only suspended from FIDE for 6 months. He's probably underrrated at 7%

Oh i forgot Karjakin got kicked out of FIDE for being a Russian with typical Russian political views -- apparently that wasn't a problem under Stalin or Khrushchev or during the Russian invasion of Afghanistan but all of a sudden we require political uniformity to play chess with each other -- cancel culture came for FIDE. #ReinstateKarjakin

@JonathanRay Karjakin went crazy and was constantly just parroting Russian war propaganda. Almost all other Russian players did not do that and they are still playing.

anyone in the top 5 or born after 2000 and in the top 25 is a strong contender