Viswanathan Anand Exclusive: 'Gukesh handled the setbacks well. His journey to winning chess World Championship is remarkable'

Indian chess legend and five-time world champion, Viswanathan Anand, picked Gukesh Dommaraju’s never-say-die attitude as the major reason behind his historic World Chess Championship 2024 victory over Ding Liren. 18-year-old Gukesh became the youngest chess world champion after beating Ding in Game 14 of the Championship on Thursday.

Anand, speaking exclusively to Firstpost’s Rupha Ramani, highlighted that he recognised Gukesh as a talented chess prodigy ever since he began training him at the age of 14 at the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA). However, it is remarkable how the young chess sensation has gone on to win the world title in just four years.

“It’s huge. First of all, he’s not only the second Indian world champion, he’s the youngest ever world champion, age of eighteen, and it’s great,” Anand told Firstpost. “When I started working with him about four years ago, he was only 14. But though I realised what a huge talent he was, I would be lying if I said I knew it was going to happen in four years, I mean it’s remarkable the journey and the time (in which) he has managed to get there.”

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Anand reflects on gruelling 14-game World Chess Champions 2024

Anand also spoke about the ebb and flow of the World Chess Championship 2024 which was evenly contested until the end of 14 games and was only decided in the last moments as reigning champion Ding committed a blunder . The 55-year-old chess legend hailed Gukesh for his

“I thought it really depended on how their form would be, especially for Ding, that was the big question mark hanging over him. But once Ding turned up, and he was clearly a changed player. He was highly motivated and so on. Then, you know, we realised that we had a full match on our hands, which was great for chess, but maybe the hardest moment was Game 12, when Ding equalised the match again. At that moment, it really looked like it could go either way,” Anand said.

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“Today (Game 14 on Thursday), we thought Gukesh had an advantage. It showed the right attitude and spirit that he kept playing. And what was, after all, a drawn position. But still, you don’t expect this kind of thing to happen. So that was a literally, I can tell you. I was sitting there thinking, Yeah, it’s nice. He’s torturing him for a while but it’s going to be overthrown and then suddenly I find out that, in fact, Ding (has) blundered and he’s going to lose the match. So and you know when something historic creeps up on you so suddenly. Yeah, you’re a bit confused for a while.”

‘Gukesh handled setbacks well’

Anand added that Gukesh’s ability to handle setbacks and not deviate from his strategy played a big role in helping him emerge as a winner at the end of the 14-game battle for the world chess title.

“I think it’s the total package. You know, you don’t become a world champion by just doing one thing better than something else. He turned up, he played well, and he tried hard. He had heart. He had preparation. He was better in many things I mean, but also, he handled the setbacks well, and he stuck to his strategy. His strategy was to keep putting pressure in every game, and he stuck to this no matter what risks got involved, even, you know, the last two games when it seemed almost like Ding was waiting to go to the tiebreaks. Gukesh kept probing here and there. Actually, Gukesh could have won the match yesterday (in Game 13), but then he won today. I think it rewards his spirit,” he said.

The first grandmaster from India, Anand, also feels that Gukesh’s win will bring in a chess revolution that will drive his contemporaries like Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi to “greater heights.”

“Well, with all of them, they will be motivated by this. They have shown this in the past as well, that when one has a good result the rest, they’re very happy for him, but then they want to do it themselves as well. It will motivate them to try much harder. I’ve seen this a lot in WACA (WestBridge Anand Chess Academy) I mean, Gukesh has been in WACA. Pragg (Praggnanandhaa) is there. If one of them has success, it motivates the other possibly, they continue to remain friends but their friends and rivals at the same time. So I think, in fact, this will drive a lot of them to greater heights.”