✍Surbhi Dinesh Singh Khichi

2024 is close to an end, mid decemeber bringing us some celebrating news! And it's not from Cricket. Another C that is an Indian originated sport - Chess, played on a square board .Indian teen prodigy, Dommaraju Gukesh made sure he checkmates well yesterday, avoiding tiebreaks and any sort of blunder contrary to what his Chinese counterpart Ding Liren did. The 18-year-old is the world’s youngest and only teenager to become the chess champion, making him second Indian only after the Legend of the game, Vishwanathan Anand, who lost the title to Norwegian maverick Magnus Carlsen in 2013. So, it has returned to India after 11 years. He broke the record of Garry Kasparov, who was the world champion at 22 years in 1985.

Before we discuss about yesterday’s grand win, here’s everything you need to know about D Gukesh –

The emerging star -

Dommaraju Gukesh, is a Chennai born Telugu Hindu on May 29, 2006. His father, Rajnikant an ENT surgeon and mother Padma, a microbiologist. At the age of seven, Gukesh had decided to play Chess, the 64 squared board game. The training was an hour’s lesson thrice a week. When he was in 4^th standard, Gukesh stopped attending full time school. Later on, as his journey progressed, Gukesh’s father had to quit his job in the year 2017 – 18. Rajnikant travelled across the world with Gukesh, so that the latter could fulfill his dream. The expenses were stripped down, budget shrunk to an all-time low and the home was solely run on mother’s income. And for Gukesh’s Chess tournaments, there was no sponsor. The finance was arranged through crowd funding or as in the early days, his parents’ friends used to sponsor the money.

A timeline of Gukesh’s early achievements –

2015 – Section 9 of the Asian School Chess Championships

2018 – World Youth Chess Championship (Under 12 category)

2018 – Asian Youth Chess Championships (5 gold medals in the U -12 individual rapid and blitz, U – 12 team rapid and blitz, & U-12 individual classical formats)

2017 – The 34^th Cappelle–La-Grande open, where he completed the requirements mandatory for the title of International master

2019 – Second youngest grandmaster in history when he was 12 years, 7 months and 17 days old (at present third youngest)

2021 – Julius Baer Challengers Chess tour, Gelfand challenge

2022 – 44^th Chess Olympiad (Individual Gold, Third for Team India-2)

             Third youngest player to surpass a rating of 2700 points

2023 – Youngest player to reach a rating of 2750 points, surpassed Vishwanathan Anand as the top ranked Indian player, Youngest player to qualify for the Candidates tournament (2024) and winning it to qualify for the World Chess Championship 2024.

              Player of the year (Asian Chess Federation)

2024- Individual gold medal and team gold at the Chess Olympiad, Budapest

With this, D Gukesh strongly moved for The World Chess Championship 2024. And the result is here. Read on, about yesterday’s thrilling final -

The final blow –

It was the 14^th and last game of World Chess championship that sealed Gukesh’s win on Thursday evening in Singapore. A quite dramatic final where under pressure Liren served the title to Gukesh on the platter. Let’s see how Gukesh triumphed game after game.

• The opening game lasted for 42 moves. It drew pressure on Gukesh, as Ding Liren took an early lead.
• After loss in the first game, Gukesh snapped back and concluded the game to a draw. The scoreline now stood at 0.5 – 1.5, Liren still ahead in the game.
• Gukesh was well prepared in this one. He clinched the first win in the series, the scoreline now levelled at 1.5 – 1.5. A faulty calculation made Liren falter in the game.
• The Indian and Chinese opponents scored half a point each, the result a tie at 2 – 2.
• Fifth game kept Gukesh going ahead with perseverance. Even though it was again a draw with 2.5 in the scoreline.
• Gukesh fought hard on with the black pieces, the scoreline on a 3 – 3 point.
• The seventh game lasted to be the marathon game for 5 hours and 22 minutes. Both the players levelled up to 3.5.
• Gukesh and Liren now needed 4 more points to take the title home. This one too turned out to be a draw, a fifth consecutive one, the score moving a slight ahead up to 4 – 4. The next game was also followed by a tie only, seemed to be an impasse standing at 4.5 each.
• The tight drawn match resulted at a scoreline of 5 – 5.
• The 11^th game, sort of decided the fate. This was when Liren blundered on his 28^th move. With seven minutes on the clock, the next moment after his mistake, Liren resigned immediately. Now, Gukesh stood with a crucial lead of 6 – 5.
• Liren was quick to finish Gukesh’s lead in the 12^th game levelling back again at 6 – 6. Then, in the 13^th game too, it was a draw in the end after a tough tussle of 68 moves.
• Gukesh ensured a thrilling win in the final game with 7.5 points stamping on Liren’s mistake, where his bishop was stuck at the a8 square. The final scoreline sealed at 7.5 – 6.5.

The final earned Gukesh a sum of USD 1.3 million (approx. INR 11.3 crore) out of the prize purse of 2.5 million. To be noted, this tournament fee is nowhere in front of the Top IPL picks of the season. Well, there’s a lot of time for the comparisons between earnings in cricket, it’s domination over other sports.

But Gukesh’s win is a major accomplishment for India. The star has just emerged, there is a long way to go; as for the champions, even the sky is not the limit. An unforgettable final, that brought us the title of the World Chess Champion back home. Summing up with the legend Sir Vishwanathan Anand’s appreciation and blessing for the young lad, “The boy who would be King.”