D Gukesh reacts to iconic moment from World Chess Championship victory: ‘It was suddenly…’

D Gukesh defeated Chinese GM Ding Liren at the World Chess Championship in Singapore last year.

D Gukesh scripted history in December last year, when he became the youngest-ever world chess champion, at the tender age of 18. The Indian GM defeated defending champ Ding Liren at the World Chess Championship in Singapore, reigning supreme at the decisive 14th game. The result also saw Gukesh become the 18th world champion, also at four years younger than Garry Kasparov, who had been the youngest world champion since 1985.

D Gukesh reacts after beating Ding Liren.(PTI)

In the fourteenth game, it looked like it was going according to Liren’s plan, who was trying to enforce the tie-breaker round, which is not Gukesh’s specialty. But a massive blunder in the 55th move saw Liren resign and concede to Gukesh in a historic defeat.

The 14th game also became iconic due to Gukesh’s reaction, when he spotted Liren’s blunder at the end-game. It was of pure joy and euphoria, and he was almost in tears. Then after Liren resigned, he broke down in tears and it became a huge viral moment.

D Gukesh reacts to iconic World C'ship moment

Gukesh reacted to his emotions from Singapore in a recent interview with the Take Take Take application. Speaking at Weissenhaus Resort, where he is participating at the controversial Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, he said, “It was suddenly a cool moment. I mean it was like my childhood dream had come true. For a few days, I was quite excited, quite happy and then I settled down and moved on to the next tournament, started preparing. I mean it is obviously nice that everything went like a dream and now to the next thing.”

Gukesh qualified for the World Championship by winning the Candidates Tournament in dramatic circumstances in April last year. The tournament also featured the likes of R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi.

But Gukesh’s win wasn’t well-received by Magnus Carlsen, who criticised the quality of the game and also downplayed classical chess. Meanwhile, he also received a negative response from former coach Vladimir Kramnik. But Viswanathan Anand rushed to Gukesh’s defence and lauded him for his win.

He was in action in Wijk aan Zee recently, where he almost won the Tata Masters. He was in sole lead for most part of the tournament, but Praggnanandhaa caught up towards the end and defeated him in the tie-breaker round.