D Gukesh: After a dream 2024, youngest chess world champion faces a tough 2025

Dommaraju Gukesh has come a long way since he first dreamt of becoming the youngest chess world champion at the tender age of 11, with the Chennai lad going on to fulfill that dream seven years later at the FIDE World Chess Championship in Singapore earlier this month. The year 2024 was a magical one for Gukesh, one in which the teenager was crowned the youngest Candidates champion of all time after beating the likes of Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura and later played a starring role in India’s historic Chess Olympiad triumph.

His victory over Ding Liren by a 7.5-6.5 margin at the World Championship in Singapore, however, would outshine all the others as the 18-year-old not only became the youngest world champion in the history of the sport, he also became the second Indian after the legendary Viswanathan Anand.

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Gukesh is currently enjoying a well-deserved break back in Chennai, having received a hero’s welcome in his hometown and meeting legends such as Rajinikanth. He can afford to rest on his laurels for a few more days, perhaps till it’s time to usher in the new year.

It will, however, only be a matter of time before the 18-year-old braces for a fresh challenge. And the year 2025 sure has plenty of them :

Gukesh faces a stern challenge in three major events in 2025

Icons of the game such as world No 1 Magnus Carlsen, who had decided against defending his world championship last year that allowed China’s Ding to take his place and beat Ian Nepomniachtchi, have questioned the quality of the battle that was on display in the World Championship in Singapore.

The sentiment of the Norwegian GM, who had defeated Vishy Anand in Chennai in 2013 to be crowned world champion, was echoed by the likes of former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, who called Gukesh’s crowning moment on Thursday, 12 December as the “end of chess as we know it”.

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Having climbed to the summit of the sport, Gukesh will now have to prove that he belongs there by beating the who’s who of chess in the triple crown of tournament chess in 2025 – the Tata Steel Chess in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands in January, Norway Chess at Stavanger, Norway in May-June as well as the Sinquefield Cup at St Louis, USA in August.

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Carlsen, whom Gukesh considers to be his idol as well as the epitome of success in the modern era of the sport, will not be participating in Tata Steel Chess next month but could face the newly-crowned world champion at his home event in the summer months in a battle that could be the biggest showdown of the year.

And beyond Carlsen, there’s also the uphill task of facing Caruana and Nakamura, ranked 2nd and 3rd in the latest FIDE ratings with the former in action at Wijk aan Zee next month. Gukesh had finished ahead of the two in the Candidates Tournament in Toronto in April and both American grandmasters will be hoping to return the favour this year.

Stiff competition from fellow Indians

And let’s not forget the fact that Gukesh faces intense competition not just from the Carlsens, Caruanas and Nakamuras but from fellow Indians as well with world No 4 Arjun Erigaisi emerging a key threat for Gukesh when not competing alongside him in events such as the Chess Olympiad.

Arjun, who is currently competing in the FIDE Rapid and Blitz World Championships in New York City, had recently made history as well by becoming only the second Indian after Anand to achieve the elusive 2800 ELO rating. Together with Praggnanandhaa, who had finished runner-up in last year’s Chess World Cup after losing to Carlsen, and others such as Vidit Gujrathi, Arjun will sure prove a major challenge for Gukesh to conquer. Especially since they all know each other so well.