Mumbai: Gukesh Dommaraju took a moment to collect his thoughts, as he looked back at a memory from 11 years ago. He recited the details about how he sat in the audience, watching Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand competing against Magnus Carlsen for the 2013 World Chess Championship title in Chennai.
“When I was in the stands, looking inside the glass box, I thought it would be so cool to be inside one day,” Gukesh, the world chess champion, said in the post-match press conference of the 2024 World Championship in Singapore. “When Magnus won, I wanted to be the one to bring back the title to India. This dream that I had more than 10 years ago has been the single most important thing in my life so far…and now that now that this is not just a dream but reality, it feels I think that 8-year-old kid would be really happy.”
On Thursday, Gukesh achieved just that. Beating defending champion Ding Liren in the final game of the contest, the 18-year-old from Chennai became India’s second world champion in classical chess, and the youngest-ever to win the coveted crown.
Once Ding resigned, the usually stoic Gukesh burst into tears as the weight of his achievement sank in. “I got emotional because I did not expect to win from that position,” he said. “I thought we will play for five-six hours and it will be a draw. I was already preparing myself to go through the huge tiebreak fight and suddenly I saw the chance. Suddenly it was all over and I achieved my dream.”
In April, Gukesh won the Candidates tournament – the gateway to the World Championship match – against all odds. But since then, the teenager has given himself every opportunity to win the title, including teaming up with renowned mental coach Paddy Upton.
The South African had famously worked with the Indian cricket team that went on to win the 2011 ICC World Cup, and recently worked with the Indian men’s hockey team that won bronze at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
“We started working together in May, especially for the World Championship and all that is at stake with it,” Gukesh said. “I needed to be in the right mental state and the work has been enjoyable and instructive. One of the important things we discussed was the uncertainty of (Ding’s) form. Paddy doesn’t understand chess very well, but he understands sport and the psychology behind that.”
For all the preparation, Gukesh had a horrid start to the World Championship, losing the opening game. “No matter how much you prepare for it, you come here as an 18-year-old and lose the way I did, it’s humiliating and it was the toughest challenge I faced in the match,” he said.
Crucially, Gukesh received an important piece of advice from Anand at the right time. Anand, a five-time world champion, had never officially been a part of Gukesh’s team. “But he was supporting me,” Gukesh said. “He attended most of the training camps and was helping remotely for a few sessions.”
But after Gukesh lost the first game against Ding, the youngster had a chance meeting with Anand in the hotel elevator later that evening. “He told me, ‘I had 11 games, you have 13 games,’” Gukesh recalled. “It was a nice moment and a nice reminder that this was one game and it’s still a long match. I will get my chances.”
The chances came, and Gukesh made the most of it especially in Game 14 on Thursday.
In his moment of triumph though, he looked back at his journey and recalled the struggle his parents went through to ensure his chess career would not suffer. “We weren’t a very well-off family, so (my parents) had to face a lot of financial struggles,” Gukesh said. “I did not realise at that point the kind of lenghts they went to. At some point in 2017-18, we were running low on money. That’s when my parents’ friends came forward and sponsored me to help me play. All these things my parents endured, all these lifestyle changes, just for me to play.”
The family persevered and Gukesh has now won the biggest title his sport has to offer. However, he explained that the world title was just “a part of the dream.”
“My goal is to be at the very top for the longest time possible,” he said. “Becoming world champion doesn’t mean I’m the best player in the world, obviously, that’s Magnus. It’s also a motivating factor that there is someone at a very high level. It’s something that will keep me doing the right things to reach the level of greatness that Magnus has achieved.”
There’s also a hope that he could face a fellow-Indian for a world title. Gukesh is a part of a young brigade of star players that has been taking the chess world by storm. “I hope we will keep fighting against each other, keep pushing, keep motivating and winning team tournaments together,” he said.
At the moment though, the chess world belongs to Gukesh.
He was asked in the press conference to explain in a word what the title meant to him. Gukesh, again, took a moment to collect his thoughts.
“Everything.”
