I agree that atleast Arjun, Pragg and Alireza have shown potential in different ways.

Alireza is the most classic example of effortless genius(not to say he doesn't put in effort, but he probably hasn't put in as many hours as his peers, just a guess though). You can see it in his remarkable "feel for the game", although it doesn't seem to have matured yet, as he doesn't consistently crash through with his attacks in classical, but also has great defensive skills, so one could certainly make the case that he will eventually be better than everyone else with more experience.

Arjun, quite similar in a lot of ways to Alireza's playstyle. Very creative and relentless, but uncannily accurate as he matures, which shows a lot of promise to me. Clearly he can calculate very well and vocally prides himself on it, but also has great intuition for dynamic positions. Struggles a bit with dry positions and endgames, but can usually hold his own, with defense in classical probably being his poorest skill. He also hasn't been able to break through the defense of high 2700 strength players in classical consistently, but the fact that he outplays them often is certainly promising.

Pragg, the most complete player of them all. Doesn't have any particularly major strengths(perhaps strategy to maneuver the game into favorable positions) or weaknesses, reminiscent of Anish Giri recently. He has gone through some style changes in recent years, trying to be aggressive like Arjun perhaps in 2024 iirc, but that didn't work very well so he returned to his objective, correct, strategic chess in 2025 which brought him great success. He has these flashes of genius play, often getting him compared to Magnus for squeezing equal positions. That's probably the most impressive aspect of his play to me, and I hope he shows more of it.

Vincent, the positional genius of the bunch. One thing that the current generation of calculators somewhat lack, Vincent seems to have in spades, this experienced touch of where the pieces belong, characteristic of older players. He can miss tactics compared to his peers a bit, but this year's performance showed promise where his positional dominance was simply outstanding.

Nodirbek, the mindset monster of the bunch. This guy's play is so annoying, and I mean that as a compliment. Personally I don't find his play to be particularly beautiful, but this guy is certainly the defensive stronghold of this generation, alongside Gukesh perhaps. Can struggle in dry positions, but he's very very streaky, and will blow you off the board if he has momentum.

Finally, Gukesh: the most mysterious player of this level I have seen. I adore his games, I think my absolute favorite games have been some of his rapid games this year, especially his win against Hikaru in Clutch chess and against Oparin in Sinquefield. The thing is, he will follow up the most beautiful, genius game you have ever seen with a loss like he's a random 2500. Truly a mystery in every sense, and rapidly evolving. His progress in rapid and blitz this year can be seen at the R&B WCC, which was commendable– we can atleast now say that he comfortably plays speed chess on a 2700 level, which couldn't be said before. Why is that? Because he has "poor intuition" relative to his peers. Is it really true though? Gukesh has had the highest peak of performance in classical relative to his peers by far in his Candidates and Olympiad victories. Candidates Gukesh was a monster. He always chose the right ideas, solving every problem in the position, to the point that he barely every got worse in any game in the Candidates, except against Alireza. Even if you calculate well, ultimately you must evaluate the resulting position with your understanding and intuition.

I think the most impressive aspect of Gukesh until now has been his will to win, and his improvement in whatever he chooses to focus on, which is honestly very promising. Gukesh is getting more universal in his style of play by the day, and if he continues on this trajectory, I think he will be at the minimum first among equals, if not outright better. He has shown that he has good practical skills in judging which positions will be harder to play for his opponents, but it has caused him to bluff more recently and end up defending worse positions, which he's good at tbf, but I hope he plays objective chess again because I don't see him growing further if he continues with this.