Gukesh’s record is going to last for perhaps a hundred years
It was a battle of personalities where Gukesh really showed a victorious mentality. A true victor who really fought back in the battle
A few months back, when Gukesh won the Candidates and qualified to play the World Championship match against defending champion Ding Liren, it was quite a surprise. He was a last-minute entry to the Candidates but despite that, he played very consistently, he won, and it was generally felt that Gukesh was going to be a great challenge for Ding.
It was a challenge in the sense that after winning the World Championship in 2023, Ding had not played at all and Gukesh kept on playing well even after the Candidates. He played a lot of tournaments, he got a gold medal in the Olympiad on the top board, once again ahead of Carlsen. And that’s why before the match, it looked like it was going to be a very smooth one-sided victory for the challenger.
But the match wasn’t to be that way. It was a far cry from a smooth match like Challenger Fisher beating Spassky. Or the Champion winning the World Champion match, Carlson versus Ian Nepomniachtchi was one-sided. This match wasn’t that match at all. It was a very tense and tough match both the players were not at their best.
For Gukesh, it was a bigger challenge because he lost with white pieces in the very first game, which nobody expected. And as a result, he really faced challenges. It was a battle of personalities where Gukesh really showed a victorious mentality. A true victor who really fought back in the battle.
In the 14th game, both played well, but Ding’s mentality of trying to draw backfired. This is a Russian proverb which says the easiest way to lose or the worst way to lose is to try to play for a draw. Because when you try to play for a draw, you never achieve a draw easily. And that’s what happened to Ding.
The world now knows that the age of the champion has come down. At Kasparov’s time when people thought 22 was too early and now it’s 18. Of course, very few players are in that position to play so well. Generally, players are strong by the age of 22-23. Even Viswanathan Anand, when he reached the top five in the world, he was already 22. From that point of view, this is a fantastic achievement and significant.
Things are well suited for the Indian chess. We have a gold medal in both the Olympiads, a feat that was achieved only by USSR and China before. Compared to China, in 2018, when they won both the Olympic golds as well as the individual world championship, they were looking for an individual world championship in men and women. Eventually, when Ding became the champion in 2023, all the four titles were with China — the men’s Olympiad, women’s Olympiad, men’s individual and women’s individual.
We don’t have the women’s individual championship, but we have achieved a lot. Most significant factor is that exactly after 100 years of formation of FIDE, we have the Indian game coming back to India with the glory, with the title.
Now whatever you thought of USSR earlier as the strongest chess country, that is happening to India.
On the government level, we have already started getting a lot of support after the Gukesh’s gold in the Olympiad 2022 and a lot of support is coming from SAI. There are individual sponsors for these players. But the real significance of this victory will be achieved when one day we have a system where a youngster without spending money would be able to get all the facilities.
Even then, a fantastic achievement, a historic achievement that is unbelievable. And probably Gukesh’s record is going to last for perhaps a hundred years.
Recommended Topics