Guwahati: There is a video doing the rounds on the internet of a young 11-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju being interviewed by Sagar Shah back in 2017 on the back of winning the national under-11 chess championship. Shah, who is credited with popularising the game in the country in recent years through his platform ChessBase India, asked Gukesh about his personal ambitions and what he wanted to do when he grew up. Prompt came the reply, “I want to become the youngest world chess champion.”
Fast forward seven years, Gukesh finds himself at the pinnacle of world chess. The outpouring of emotions in the final moments of the game when he realised that his opponent, Chinese grandmaster (GM) Ding Liren, made a blunder was a rare occurrence in his otherwise composed demeanour. Getting up from his seat, he could barely contain his emotions – smiling, laughing and eventually breaking down once Ding resigned and history was made. Meticulously setting the pieces back on the board, the teenager was in no hurry to leave the scene of the “single greatest moment” of his life.
A product of the Westbridge-Anand Chess Academy, started by former world champion Viswanathan Anand, Gukesh became a GM at just 12 years of age, the third-youngest to do so. Earlier this year, he won the Candidates Tournament – an eight-player tournament held to determine the challenger for the World Chess Championship – and became the youngest world championship challenger, beating seasoned professionals like Hikaru Nakamura, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana.
Born in a Telugu family in Chennai, Gukesh started playing chess at the age of seven, when he saw Anand lose his world championship title against world no. 1 Magnus Carlsen in his hometown. He has often talked about financial struggles growing up and how his parents’ friends came forward to sponsor him so he could participate in tournaments. Eleven years later, the title is back in Chennai and in India, the birthplace of chess.
Going into the tournament, Gukesh was the clear favourite, having just helped India win its first ever team gold medal at the Chess Olympiad a couple of month earlier, also winning an individual gold on board one. Contrastingly, Ding came into this tournament in a pretty bad shape, after his well-documented mental health struggles post becoming the world champion last year.
So it was quite a shock when Ding won the first game of the 14-game championship match, that too with black pieces, after surprising everyone by playing the French Defence. Gukesh equalised the match score in the third game, winning with the white pieces, after opting for a Queen’s Gambit Declined opening. After a string of seven draws, Gukesh took the lead for the first time in the match, winning a chaotic eleventh game after Ding blundered a knight. But the Chinese GM fought back with remarkable precision in the very next game, opting for the English opening and forcing Gukesh to resign. And then, in a drawish final game on Thursday, December 12, when everything pointed towards a rapid tiebreak the following day, Ding made a championship-deciding blunder, allowing Gukesh to convert a queen-and-pawn endgame.
Also read: Gukesh Dommaraju Becomes Youngest World Chess Champion in Historic Win Over Ding Liren
Magnanimous in victory, Gukesh was full of praise for his 32-year-old opponent. “Obviously, the past two years, he hasn’t been in great shape. But he came here, he was obviously struggling during the games, he was probably not at the best physically but he fought in all games. He fought like a true champion.”
“I’ve been dreaming about living this moment for more than 10 years,” Gukesh said as he became the 18th world champion. He thanked his trainer Grzegorz Gajewski, who has also worked with Anand in the past, and former cricket coach Paddy Upton. He also revealed his “seconds” – grandmasters Radosław Wojtaszek, Pentala Harikrishna, Vincent Keymer and Jan-Krzysztof Duda – and acknowledged the support of Anand throughout the process.
Fielding questions on his age, Gukesh said, “If I’m here, I have to handle anything and for me, I was not hoping in any kind of way that because of my age, people will take it a bit easy on me. I was ready to face the toughest challenge on the board and off the board as well.” Gukesh revealed that criticism about his inexperience, referring to Carlsen’s comments, fired him up.
One might wonder what’s next for Gukesh, given his fledgling career. Achieving a 2800 Elo rating could be one goal (he is currently rated 2777), becoming the third Indian and the 16th ever to do so.
Getting to the top of the world rankings may be another (Gukesh is currently ranked fifth). Carlsen, widely regarded as the greatest ever, occupies that spot and it was his decision to not compete in the world championship match last year that led us to this.
However, Gukesh sounds a clear warning to his competitors. “My goal with my career has always been to be at the very top for the longest time possible,” he announced.
