Author: Atreyo Mukhopadhyay

Fans crowding the competition venue, chanting his name, queuing up after the game to take his autograph, experts giving him the billing of favourite and the media desperate to squeeze a few words out of him — it’s been a rollercoaster fortnight for D Gukesh. Truth be told, he has lived up to this. With three games to go, he is leading 6-5 against Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship. Now comes the most crucial three-four days in the life of this 18-year-old. If he doesn’t lose, he will become the youngest-ever world champion in the game of 64…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Singapore City At around 8.45 pm Singapore time on Sunday, there was a huge roar outside the auditorium where the World Chess Championship is taking place. A few dozen Indians started screaming, “Goo..kesh, Goo..kesh”. It was spontaneous and contagious as a few more voices joined in. D Gukesh had just posted a massive win against Ding Liren in the 11th round game. Not only does this hand him a 6-5 lead, but with three games to play, it also makes the Indian the favourite to dethrone the Chinese as the world champion of chess. It’s true that…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Singapore Indian youngsters are making waves in the world of chess. People have become familiar with the names of D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, R Vaishali and others. They are not household names, but well-known nonetheless. To know more about them, one should wait until March-April next year. That’s when a documentary film on them is expected to be released. ‘Candidates’ is a venture of Dopamine Media, a production house which makes docu-features. It is going to tell the story of Indian chess through the tales of some of these young players who have taken the…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Singapore City “A game or contest that ends with the score even.” That’s the dictionary definition for the word ‘draw’. For those following this World Chess Championship match, this is becoming the norm, and in a fairly boring sense of the term. For the seventh time in the last seven games of this contest, that turned out to be the outcome. This means that D Gukesh and Ding Liren are tied at 5-5. Ten games gone and four more to go, so it’s difficult to say which way this is going to tilt. Possibly not on either…

-Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Singapore City Every day when the players enter the playing arena and leave the press conference room after the game, there are about a few dozen fans crowding those places. They cheer for the players before the games and ask for autographs after them. Most of them are Indians rooting for D Gukesh. Fans of Ding Liren are also present, although fewer in numbers. As the World Chess Championship duel nears the business end, the clamour around the Indian will increase and so will the pressure. The players are tied at 4.5-4.5 after nine games. In the…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Singapore City Things kept happening in the manner they had been, in this World Chess Championship final in Sentosa in Singapore. Ding Liren was well behind time compared to D Gukesh for a major part of the game and caught up eventually. For the seventh time in nine games, there was another draw. With five more rounds to play, the players are tied 4.5-4.5. The big difference was, the defending champion didn’t give any chance whatsoever to the challenger. In the last few games, Gukesh held an edge for a long time before settling for draws. This…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Singapore For the second day running, D Gukesh’s father was spotted outside the auditorium where spectators are seated to watch the World Chess Championship. Dr Rajinikanth was once again glued to his phone. And yet again, he saw his son squander a favourable position against Ding Liren before settling for a draw. With six games to go, the scores are tied 4-4. This is becoming a pattern in this duel. The defending champion thinks a lot to make his moves in the first half, falls way behind in terms of time remaining on the clock and claws…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Singapore Conditions in Singapore can be drastically different depending on where one is. Outdoors, it’s warm when it doesn’t rain. At the World Chess Championship match being played at Resorts World Sentosa, metro trains and buses, things can be freezing because of the air-conditioning. It’s a weird combination of hot and cold. The players, too, blew hot and cold in the seventh-round game. At the end of a marathon battle which lasted over five hours, D Gukesh saw his advantage fade away gradually and painfully. Ding Liren came back from an inferior position and intense time pressure…

Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Singapore The World Chess Championship is delicately poised. Defending champion Ding Liren and D Gukesh are 3-3 after six games. With eight more rounds to play, there is no favourite. The Chinese has surprised the Indian challenger a few times, but the youngster has come back to stay even. In Tuesday’s seventh round, Gukesh will have white pieces. Singapore seems to be lukewarm for this match. There was no publicity signage visible at the airport and common people are not even aware that this is taking place in their city. That, however, doesn’t diminish the importance of…

D Gukesh survived a scare in the fifth round of the World Chess Championship match against Ding Liren. He was in a favourable position with white pieces early on and it seemed headed for a draw, before things unfolded in an unexpected manner. In the end, the Indian was possibly fortunate to get away with a draw, which makes the score 2.5-2.5 in the 14-round match. It was quite even to begin with, in the match being played in Singapore. Neither side had a clear advantage after the opening. It looked quite Even Stevens until some time. However, and according…