Indian prodigy Gukesh Dommaraju broke new ground to reach the World Chess Championship and the 18-year-old “Friends” fan is now hot favourite to win the title and make more history.
Gukesh will be the youngest player to take home the undisputed world crown if he beats reigning champion Ding Liren of China in Singapore from November 25.
Most pundits and players believe Gukesh will prevail against the 32-year-old Ding, who has not won a game in the classical format since January.
The modest and bearded Gukesh is having none of it.
“I don’t believe in predictions and who are the favourites,” he told reporters ahead of the title match, where there is a total prize fund of $2.5 million.
“I’m just focusing on the process and I try to just be at my best every day and play a good game.
“I just want to enjoy the experience.”
Gukesh became India’s youngest grandmaster aged 12 years, seven months and 17 days, and among the youngest in the history of the game.
Even Magnus Carlsen, the most recognisable current player in chess and a five-time world champion, was older.
If he beats Ding in the best of 14 games, Gukesh will trump the legendary Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he became world champion in 1985.
In public Gukesh often appears shy and reserved.
He was absent from the Bermuda party while starring for India at this year’s Chess Olympiad in Budapest — the do is a decades-old tradition where contestants party at a nightclub in the host city.
But after India finished with two gold medals, Gukesh surprised fans accustomed to his serious persona by posting a video of himself dancing exuberantly to a popular Tamil song clad in traditional clothing.
Though he spends much of his time practising the game, Gukesh recently confessed to a love of the hit television sitcom “Friends”.
When competing he usually wears a tilak — a smattering of white ash on his forehead in deference to his Hindu faith — to go with his suit.
In 2022, Gukesh beat US number one Fabiano Caruana at the Chess Olympiad and later that year triumphed over Carlsen.
He reached the world championship by becoming the youngest winner of the prestigious Candidates Tournament in April.
Indian chess icon and five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand has played a mentor’s role in Gukesh’s journey and hailed the teenager as his successor.
“Gukesh is a very level-headed boy,” the 54-year-old Anand told broadcaster NDTV.
“I am very, very proud that he has managed this phenomenal achievement. In a way I feel like I have managed to pass on the baton.”
– ‘Like a seasoned player’ –
Born to a doctor father and microbiologist mother, Gukesh started playing chess aged seven.
His father Rajnikanth took him to watch Anand play Carlsen in a world championship match in his hometown Chennai in November 2013.
The world championship in Singapore is being compared by some in India to the classic showdown between the American Bobby Fischer and Soviet great Boris Spassky at the height of the Cold War in 1972.
Ties between nuclear-armed neighbours China and India are frequently tense.
Ding has been impressed by his teenage opponent’s maturity.
“He plays like a seasoned player despite his young age,” said Ding, who since becoming world champion last year has suffered depression and took a nine-month break from competitive chess.
Carlsen makes the young Indian “a significant favourite, and if he strikes first he will win the match without any trouble”, the Norwegian told FIDE, the International Chess Federation.
“However, the longer it goes without a decisive game, the better it is for Ding Liren because he has the ability, but he doesn’t have the confidence.”
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