Gukesh, the new world champion: The will to win

An eighteen-year-old Indian Gukesh Domaraju became the new world champion in chess, the youngest in the history of this game. In the title match on December 12, he defeated the current champion, Chinese Dingle Liren, with a score of 7,5 to 6,5. Gukesh is the second Indian in history - after Viswanathan Anand - to win this title, and as things are currently on the chess scene, it is very likely that he will not be the last. There are several Indians in the top thirty chess players in the world, of whom it is not known who is better and more interesting. However, at this moment, Gukesh is in the center of attention. In India, he is so popular that a few days ago he was unable to get out of the hotel because of the crowd of people waiting to greet him.

Gukesh comes from a family of doctors who, when they realized what a miracle they were dealing with, focused on their son's career. It is clear that the effort paid off. Gukesh grew into a stable, decent and, it must be said, self-confident guy. He is a virtuoso of positional games - therefore, he is not prone to excessive wildness on the board, he does not enter, if he does not have to, the positions enjoyed by, for example, the naturalized Frenchman Alireza Firuzja or the spectacular Russian Danil Dubov (once also Garry Kasparov), when everything is bursting and when half the board "hangs" - and to that extent it is similar in style to Anatoly Karpov. However, in the title match, he set his sights on an equally thin positional player: before he became world champion and fell into a deep playing and mental crisis, Ding Liren crushed his opponents with calm and solid play. Before the start of the match, few people gave Ding a chance against the young Indian precisely because for two years, as world champion, he did not manage to get his act together, he rarely played, he finished at the bottom of the table twice in tournaments, while, on the other hand, Gukesh was "breaking" everything in front of him. Polite and quiet, the Chinese did not hide the fact that he also thinks that Gukesh is the favorite in their match, and once he even simply stated that he would have been quite successful if Gukesh had not massacred him. And he didn't massacre him. On the contrary. It was a tight match with several top games, and Gukesh became the world champion in the last, fourteenth game of the match after one of the biggest oversights in the history of world champion matches. So, just when the chess world was hoping that Ding Liren had finally recovered, that he had started to play superbly again - he won Gukeš in two outstanding games - in the last game of the match, Ding made an incredible oversight when there were only seven pieces on the board.

THE OMNIPERSE CARLSEN

The greatest paradox of modern chess is that the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, the best chess player in the world and, as many believe, perhaps the best chess player in the history of this game, is not the world champion. The man withdrew from the championship fight because, he says, he lost his motivation, but wherever he appears, he continues to trample everyone in front of him. At the moment we are writing this text, Carlsen won the World Chess Championship in Oslo in 10 minutes, in the final he dismantled the Russian Yan Nepomnyashi and left behind Alireza Firuzia, Maxim Vasya Lagrave, Levon Aronian, and in one of the previous games Wesley So failed to win it - in fact, he lost it - although Carlson was completely lost after the eighth move or so. Just to remind you that American Grandmaster So is currently the twelfth player in the world. Therefore, Carlsen is not inspired by title matches (he defended the title five times, and after his retirement he stated that he would perhaps come back if the world champion becomes a chess player of a younger generation; here is his chance), and he is more interested in more dynamic forms of chess than the classical ones. , namely, accelerated chess and blitz. It was such and such Carlsen who stated that the match between Gukesh and Ding Liren was not of high quality. He is right, of course, but Carlsen did not delve deeper into the analysis of the match, and in particular he did not talk about the fact that title matches are so specific that many things decide in them - as in any other sport, of course - and especially the will to win and mental stability. In 1972, Bobby Fischer mentally abused Boris Spassky so much that he made an oversight that had never happened to him even when he was a teenager. We can say this about any sport, but chess is specific in that four hours of play for forty moves seems like an eternity compared to, say, tennis, where the balls, when caught well, fly at speed of 200 kilometers per hour. From the player's point of view, however, the two hours they have at their disposal simply fly by.

Of course, it is especially interesting when top players lose more than an hour for the first dozen moves, even though today, thanks to computers and with good preparation, the first dozen moves are played almost automatically. All this shows all the complexity of chess, taking into account that chess players must be in exceptional physical condition in order to withstand the efforts (chess, let's remind you of that, is one of the sports in which, in classic games - four to five hours of sitting - lose only slightly less calories than in cycling, in which cyclists turn the pedals for five hours). If, therefore, any one of the players plays a move that his opponent did not take into account, the entire construction imagined in the opening collapses, all the preparations fall into the water and the real battle begins. After all, it was Ding Liren who won the first game of the match with black pieces because Gukesh did not withstand his deviation from the main variant and that in the French defense, which is well researched and has a clear structure. But precisely because of his instability and because he "eat" too much time in the opening, Ding loses the third game in 37 moves, and actually spends the entire match in worse positions, defending himself.

THE ART OF DEFENSE

The art of defense in chess is no less than the art of attack, and the Chinese showed in this match that he is a great master of defense. When Gukeš was asked by journalists what he thought about the psychological moment in chess, he answered that he does not believe in psychology but in good moves. It is, of course, an attractive answer, but mental stability is a condition for good moves, again as in other sports. At one time, Djokovic noticed how players against Federer lose matches in advance because their goal is not to wear down - then they usually wear out - and not to win. Djokovic, therefore, went out on the court to beat Federer, not to die an honorable death. It is similar when chess players come to a match with Carlsen, as if they are going to be executed. Own. Carlsen, on the other hand, thinks about nothing but winning. We will often see him "put together" a disappointed face when he finds that the material on the board is so reduced that the game must end in a draw. Ding Liren is not made of such material, while Gukesh, in all likelihood, is. Despite this, the Chinese defended masterfully. It is very difficult to play when you have less pawns, say. Not only are you in a subordinate position on the board, but your opponent is putting all their energy into beating you. In addition, the way of thinking in such games must change, so regardless of the fact that even then you are looking for the best moves, now the goal is not to win but to survive. And yet, on the other hand, in chess it is true that winning games is the most difficult thing to do. And this is where the greatest chess players showed the greatest bloodthirstiness and the absence of any mercy: when you knock down your opponent, keep beating him with all your might. In chess, however, it is a special kind of skill and without any difference requires a special mental constitution: Carlsen not only never gives up, but never gives in when he grabs a prey. Like a python: if it wraps around your body, nothing will save you.

Therefore, Gukesh attacked all the time and was mostly in better positions, while Ding saved what could be saved and he did very well. But when a chess player defends well and gets the impression that his opponent, despite everything, can't do anything, he takes heart and relaxes a little. This is exactly what happened to Ding in the 11th game of the match, which he lost in just 29 moves. However, in the 12th game, Ding played masterfully and destroyed Gukesh in 39 moves.

And then the last, 14th game.

From the very beginning, Gukeš has a small advantage, he wins the pawn, but the position is mostly equal, and the room for maneuver is narrowed due to the reduced material. Even though it didn't look like it from the sideline, Ding will say after the game how difficult it was to defend. Again, therefore, a psychic moment. In a draw position, Gukesh presses with all his might, while Ding defends. Who knows what goes through the minds of chess players in a slow, unattractive game that is mostly about technique, but Ding admitted that he was just waiting for the end, a draw and a chance to beat Gukesh in the playoffs. Gukesh, on the other hand, played to win. It is hard to think that he believed in that victory, but he did not think of giving up until he exhausted everything that could be exhausted. You should have seen Gukesh's expression when he realized that Ding was wrong. You should have seen the chess commentators who were broadcasting the match live and who jumped up from their chairs, started grabbing their heads and shouting. You should have seen the fans, especially the Indian fans, who followed the match as if they were watching the final of the World Cup in football. It was to finally see the calm guy Ding Liren who, when he realized what he had done, just covered his eyes with his hands.