An Indian heads into the World Chess Championship final as the favourite. He is 18. His rival, the reigning champion, is 32. These are unreal circumstances, yet true. D Gukesh is the top dog in the battle to be fought in Singapore from November 25 against China’s Ding Liren. That’s because current everything — ratings, world rankings, performances — is pointed towards the Indian.
It’s a bit unusual. When Viswanathan Anand competed at this stage of this competition, he was perhaps the favourite in his clashes against Veselin Topalov of Bulgaria and Israel’s Boris Gelfand. Not before that. He was ahead of these two in stature and also the reigning champion. Gukesh is neither. Rather, he is an 18-year-old imposter, who has made himself the favourite only by performance.
One can listen to experts including some former world champions — Garry Kasparov, Magnus Carlsen, Anand himself — and others, only to get bored by the prediction that Gukesh is the favourite. Once that sinks in, think of the bigger picture. How does a teenager from Chennai become the top draw in the world chess championship final?
This actually goes back a couple of years. In the Chess Olympiad held in Chennai in 2022, Gukesh was the most standout Indian performer in the open section. He was clearly a cut above the rest in a team performance that fetched bronze, while he won the gold on offer on the top board. Then, in 2023, he secured his place in the Candidates competition by winning the Chennai Grandmasters tournament.
Nobody expected Gukesh to win the Candidates held in Toronto. Carlsen, of all people, had clearly written him off. Gukesh persevered. He outlasted the likes of Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura and Ian Nepomniachtchi to emerge the youngest-ever winner of the competition that selects the challenger to take on the world champion. It was done in a convincing manner as well.
After that, Gukesh had a stellar run in the Chess Olympiad. He was one of the tournament’s best performers to be true. Securing a score of 9/10 on the top board for a team which won the gold medal was massively spectacular. He converted almost everything that he tried. Little went against him. In comparison, Ding was not even a pale shadow of himself.
No artificial intelligence needed here to understand why Gukesh is tipped the frontrunner in the first world championship decider featuring an Indian after Anand. If he wins, the Indian chess revolution will receive a huge boost. If he loses, the movement will not lose significant momentum. It’s a win-win situation for Indian chess. Gukesh is a winner already for ensuring this.