CHESS | It brings back the spotlight to the sport: Anand on Gukesh’s World title

Gukesh's victory at World Chess Championship brings hope for Indian chess future, praised by Anand for persistence and potential.

In mid-December, with the World Chess Championship match tied at 6.5-6.5 after 13 games, D. Gukesh and Ding Liren had seemingly fought each other to a standstill even in the 14th outing.

Gukesh had started thinking about a potential tie-breaker when a rook blunder from the defending champion let in that ray of light the Indian, until then, had no hope of finding.

Since then, that brilliant shaft has morphed into a kind of eternal sunshine, and on a crisp winter Sunday at the Good Shepherd Auditorium, scores of fans, predominantly children and enthusiastic parents, basked under it.

“It brings back the spotlight to chess,” said five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand of Gukesh’s win, at the celebratory programme organised by WestBridge Capital.

“It’s possible that at every single tournament there is an Indian playing, whom you can look forward to watching. Imagine every morning you wake up and see a tournament and there is something to root for. The audience numbers are very good; we have regular broadcast... a lot of the dots have been connected.

“These players [Gukesh, R. Praggnanandhaa etc.] have all grown up together. The rivalry is also there along with the friendship. They seem genuinely happy for each other, but they are very motivated to achieve the same thing or take it even higher. If this continues, it is fantastic for India,” Anand added.

Anand also praised Gukesh’s persistence against Liren. “Gukesh never really changed the strategy of pushing. Unexpected things happened during the match, but he was there the next day, pushing again. The rook [blunder] didn’t happen in a vacuum”.