DEC 13 — After two plus weeks of intense competition on Singapore’s Sentosa Island, we have a new world chess king, Gukesh Dommaraju. Gukesh, from India.
He defeated Ding Liren of China yesterday to become the 18th FIDE World Chess Champion.
Not unlike Argentina’s win over France at World Cup 2022, it went down to the wire (but I’m getting ahead of myself).
Late November saw thousands focusing their eyes on Singapore where India’s brilliant teenage chess prodigy, just 18 years old, squared off against Ding Liren, China’s reigning world champion.
That the island-state was picked as host was already somewhat interesting as this was the first time an Asean country hosted the world chess championship since the Philippines in 1978.
Match-wise, for the first time since the marathon Karpov-Kasparov matches between 1984 to 1990, the challenger was a clear favourite as Ding has faced numerous mental health challenges since his win over Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2023.
As if foreshadowing a massacre, Ding finished last at the Norway Chess tournament in June of this year.
Hence, the whole world was shocked when the Chinese champion managed to outmanoeuvre Gukesh in Game 1 via an unusual version of the French Defense.
After Gukesh hit back in Game 3, capitalising on Ding’s poor time management, there followed seven consecutive draws with even one game deemed as a “perfect game” in which both players played exactly to what the computers recommended.
Then a turning point came in Game 11 when Ding fashionably (?) blundered away a Knight. Gukesh pounced on it and the Chinese resigned immediately.
Being ahead with three games left, the chess crown was now Gukesh’s to lose. But the gods had other plans because in Game 12 Ding played some incredible attacking chess, even giving up a Rook-for-Knight exchange, to crush Gukesh.
In Game 13, Gukesh almost edged Ding but — so the online memes were viralling away — the Great Wall of China stood firm.
Hence, with only one match left in classical time, the two players were drawn at 6.5 points each. If neither one won the next game, the tournament would be decided by Rapid games with 15-minute time controls.
Game 14 was, in fact, looking to turn out to be a draw despite Ding being a pawn down. Every computer analysis and commentator were already declaring a stalemate and packing to leave... until Ding blundered!
He moved his rook to a position which allowed Gukesh to trade off the Bishops and that was it. We have a new world chess champion!
At 18 years old as the 18th world champion, Gukesh surpasses even the legendary Kasparov who was 22 when he became champion.
However, unlike Magnus Carlsen who was the highest rated player even before he challenged Viswanathan Anand for the title back in 2014, Gukesh is presently only the #5 highest rated player in the world (see Note 1).
Don’t need to be a grand-master to suspect that Gukesh winning the title may be a lot easier than holding on to it.
Still, take a bow, Gukesh! Congratulations!
You’ve come a long way and are a deserving and inspiring champion. I trust you’ll do India and the world proud.
Note 1: The top 4 rated players today, as at mid-December 2024, are Magnus Carlsen (2850), Fabiano Caruana (2837), Hikaru Nakamura (2823) and Arjun Erigaisi (2792). Fyi, our Malaysian No. 1 is Yeoh Li Tian rated 2523.
* This is the personal opinion of the columnist.
