The crowning of a prodigy

The chess world has found a new king in the prodigious Gukesh Dommaraju. In a draining World Chess Championship battle, the 18-year-old dethroned Ding Liren by showcasing maturity and composure that belied his age. Gukesh was installed as the favourite ahead of the Championship clash, and with good reason. After acing the Candidates event in Canada, he played a stellar role in India’s march to the team gold at the Chess Olympiad, topping it up by winning the gold medal on board one of the tournament with nine points out of a possible ten. Liren, by contrast, came into this 14-game marathon with no form. The Chinese superstar’s struggles extended beyond the board too, compelling the pundits to assert that Gukesh was the king-in-waiting and it was only a matter of time before he ascended the throne.

Liren fired the first salvo, charging off the blocks against a nervous Gukesh to win the opening game and record his first victory in 304 days. Undaunted, Gukesh displayed tremendous character and bounced back almost immediately by securing game three and levelling the proceedings. Typical of such long drawn-out games, a period of intense attritional battles ensued but not once did Gukesh blink, going toe-to-toe with his more experienced opponent and sending out the message that he wouldn’t give it away. Gukesh ended the seven-game sequence of stalemates by nudging ahead in Game 11, only for the Chinese to hit back immediately. Tied at 6-6 after 12 games, the clash seemed destined to head into a tie-breaker with the established order proclaiming that Gukesh would find it hard to digest the latest defeat. But the poker-faced teenager who worked with world-renowned mind coach Paddy Upton held his own, comfortably securing a draw in the penultimate game. With all to play for in Game 14, it was the seasoned Liren who cracked, making a schoolboy error to present the game and the title to Gukesh who pounced on the unexpected gift to send his country into raptures.

Gukesh’s dream of becoming a world champion was fuelled as a seven-year-old when he watched Viswanathan Anand, a five-time champion who later became his mentor, lose to Magnus Carlsen in the World Championship battle in Chennai in 2013. A decade of deep-rooted ambition, perseverance, and immense sacrifice – not just from him, but also his parents who had to battle financial challenges – culminated in ecstasy for India. The enormity of his accomplishment hit Gukesh not long after Liren offered his right hand in surrender, as he broke down in a show of raw emotion, kept wonderfully under check until then. By going where Anand went before him, Gukesh has become the new poster boy of chess in India.