Dommaraju Gukesh, 17 years old, won the Candidates tournament in Toronto, Canada, officially becoming the challenger to the throne of world chess champion currently seated by the Chinese Ding Liren. The Indian player is the youngest in the history of the game to reach this prestigious milestone obliterating Kasparov’s previous record. The match, on a date and venue yet to be determined, is scheduled for the end of 2024 when Gukesh, born at the end of May, will have turned 18. The victory of the native of Chennai came at the end of a long marathon, three weeks of matches and 14 matches, but it was resolved in a photo finish, during the last round, with four chess players in the list for the final success. It is also the first triumph of a chess player of the new generation, represented by athletes born in the new millennium, against the old guard, born at the end of the last century, who arrived in Canada aware that they were playing one of the last chances to conquer the world crown. Gukesh finished the tournament with 9 points, trailing the Americans Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana and the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi by half a length. The other two Indians, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit, the Franco-Iranian Alireza Firoujza and the Azerbaijani Nijat Abasov are further away.
Un finale thrilling
The last day of the tournament seems like a script written for a film. The four contenders face each other in cross-matches: Gukesh-Nakamura and Caruana-Nepomniachtchi. In the event of a tie between multiple contenders, the regulations provide for play-offs which would begin on Monday. To secure a place in extra time, borrowing a football metaphor, the very young Indian just needs not to lose against Nakamura, king of chess-streamers, who, instead, needs a victory. The 17-year-old chooses a risky path, an opening that surprises his opponent, to quickly reach a situation in which a draw (a draw in chess parlance) would have been almost inevitable. A logical ending which, despite Nakamura’s efforts to complicate the match, turns out to be so.
So, suddenly, all the attention shifts to the other board where, instead, the situation is much more tense and nervous. Caruana, born in Miami to Italian parents, and Nepomniachtchi, winner of the last two editions of the Candidates, need only one result to compete for success during the play-offs with Gukesh: victory. A draw would have eliminated both and handed the tournament to the Indian. The battle between them soon becomes a real battle, with no holds barred. The two deploy all possible strategies, unbalancing the game and opting for risky choices and unknown paths. Victory, defeat, draw: everything becomes plausible. Caruana is the first to stumble: he wastes a huge chance by ‘blundering’, a technical term that underlines a serious error, in a position of clear advantage. Even the Russian, author of a strenuous defense, gives back, making mistakes in his turn. All between grimaces, gestures of discouragement, snorts, suddenly glassy looks, in a roller coaster of emotions that lasts for all six hours of play and the 109 moves of the game. In the end the two, exhausted and disappointed by the impasse reached, inevitably agree on a draw.
There is an exchange of words that explains well the extent of the desperation resulting from the final outcome of their match. Nepomniachtchi, looking at the pieces of him and turning to Caruana, apologizes: “I’m very sorry”. “I’m very sorry”. The Italian-American replies: “My fault”. “My fault”. Then he gets up, picks up his jacket, and leaves. The Russian, however, collapses on the table, in front of the chessboard, hiding his face in his arms. The curtain falls on them. And it is a heavy curtain because both of them, who can boast a career full of successes, are aware of having lost the chance to play, after other sacrifices, a new chance to become world champions. In short, that curtain risks never opening again. Caruana, in the press conference, will be even harder on himself: “I feel like an idiot”. “I feel stupid.” A judgment perhaps too cruel, just as chess can be cruel at times.
Their defeat, however, definitively turns the spotlight on Gukesh D., as he likes to be called by shortening his name. Born in 2006, son of a doctor and a biologist, with an Elo Fide (score used to calculate the strength of a chess player) of 2743, currently in 16th place in the ranking of the strongest players in the world, Gukesh is used to burning the stages. He achieved the title of Grandmaster (GM) at the age of 12 years, 7 months and 17 days, in January 2019, five years after learning to play. He is the third precocious in history behind Sergej Karjakin and Abhimanyu Mishra. A year later he began to establish himself in various youth tournaments, becoming the best 12-year-old globally. In the 44th Chess Olympiad, in August 2022, he plays a fundamental role in the performances in the ranks of India-2, the second team fielded by the country, entirely made up of young promises, “the terrible Indians”, as many analysts called them. In August 2023, he became the youngest person to surpass the score of 2750 points, during the Chess World Cup, officially ousting Viswanathan Anand, former world champion, as the best Indian player in the official ranking drawn up by the international federation. There was talk, then, of the first relay between them, a handover between champions of different eras.
In 2023, as we know, Gukesh earns, for the first time, a place in the Candidates Tournament thanks to his performances in the FIDE Circuit, which he wins thanks to consistency, authority and courage, consolidating his status as a rising chess star
In the press conference at the end of the Candidates, Gukesh recounted the emotions he felt throughout the event. “If I had to pinpoint a moment when I felt that this could be my moment, it was probably after the seventh match, after losing to Firouzja… Even though I had just suffered a painful defeat, I felt at my best. That defeat It gave me so much motivation. Now I’m so relieved, so happy.” And even before the decisive match against Nakamura he didn’t lose clarity: “I was in that mental state where I just did my part correctly, played a good match to see what would happen.”
A winning strategy, the one adopted against the American, which also received the applause of Magnus Carlsen himself: “I loved what Gukesh did”. The Indian is now awaiting a triumphant return home, also anticipated by the congratulations expressed on X by President Narendra Modi, and months of hard work. To climb to the top of the chess Olympus, one last step is missing, the overcoming of a final obstacle called Ding Liren, or victory against the current World Champion.