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 squares. A flag-bearer of the new generation of Indian chess after Viswanathan Anand, he has already broken the glass ceiling by coming this far. Now is the question: Can he get to the pinnacle?
Other than being an exceptional chess player, Gukesh stands out for being an unusually composed person as well. That is possibly the more remarkable trait. For someone of his age, it’s difficult to keep emotions in check at times of joy. But he appeared completely indifferent after defeating the defending champion in the 11th game.
“Obviously it’s not possible to not think about the results at all. But, coming into this match, I have taken it one game at a time and concentrated more on the process than the result,” Gukesh said after winning a game which became manic towards the end. “I was trying to focus on making good moves and playing good games. That is the only way of getting the result you want. My approach for the remaining games is going to be the same.”
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That’s actually been the hallmark of his performance at the Resorts World Sentosa so far. There were times when he came under pressure, like in the 11th game itself, when he felt that he played some bad moves. “I was quite angry with myself. That’s when I went to my lounge to take a two-minute break and collect my thoughts. When I came back, I felt better.”
He has to do that and more in order to create history. Ding is a proven performer, who in the past scaled heights that no other Indian other than Anand did. It’s true that he is a bit off-colour at the moment and not playing at his best. In almost all the games he has battled time pressure. And it’s also true that he managed to do it successfully in all the games barring the two that he lost.
One can expect the Chinese to come out of his defensive shell in the remaining games in order to draw level. He is quite adept at it, mind you. In last year’s Championship clash against Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, he fell behind thrice. Each time, he succeeded in bouncing back before eventually clinching the title in the tie-breaker. He will not go down without a fight.
On the positive side for Gukesh, he has shown that he has the wherewithal other than the game and strategies to counter such initiatives. In the majority of the games so far, he has held the upper-hand and made Ding to play catch-up. He should be high on confidence going into the business end of this. After that, we will see and so will the world.
Also Read: Important win, but three more important games remain: Gukesh