Gukesh’s quest to conquer the world reaches its final stage: Data

At just 17, GM D. Gukesh wins FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2024, outshining top players worldwide.

Grandmaster (GM) D. Gukesh pulled off a phenomenal achievement by winning the prestigious FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2024, a.k.a. Candidates, scoring nine points out of 14 games. At the young age of 17, he has outshone some of the best chess players in the world. He is the youngest winner of the Candidates. The tournament, which was first conducted in 1950, has seen 25 editions so far (Table 1).

Table 1 | The table shows the winners of the Candidates, the year of the tournament, age at which the player won the tournament and the incumbent champion of the tournament.

Note: The age of the players were calculated based on approximate difference in years and not exact dates

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Two other Indians — fellow Chennai teenager GM R. Praggnanandhaa and GM Vidit Gujrathi — performed creditably scoring seven and six points, respectively, in the open section of the 2024 tournament. GM Koneru Humpy and GM-elect R. Vaishali did well to finish third in the women’s section. Gukesh is also the first Indian to win the Candidates since GM Viswanathan Anand won the tournament in 2014 and earned him a rematch for the World Championship against GM Magnus Carlsen.

Table 2 | The table shows Gukesh’s average move accuracy, the name of his opponent and their average move accuracy in all the 14 rounds of the tournament.

Gukesh’s victory in the tournament was the result of his all-round consistency and stable play. According to Chess.com, Gukesh’s average move accuracy in the estimation of high-performing chess engines in all 14 rounds was 95.4% versus his opponents’ 93.6% (Table 2). He also led the tournament in wins (five), losing only once to GM Alireza Firouzja, after committing last-minute blunders. He defeated the tournament’s lowest-rated player, Nijat Abasov, twice; his compatriots Praggnanandhaa and Gujrathi once each; and avenged his loss against Firouzja in the penultimate round. He also drew comfortably in his games against the higher-rated GMs Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Hikaru Nakamura. All three of them finished half a point behind Gukesh.