Gukesh Dommaraju, 18, had a rapturous reception from Indian fans when he flew back to Chennai after deposing China’s Ding Liren for the world title 7.5-6.5 by winning their 14th and final game in Singapore.
It was an occasion which, in Indian terms, could only have been surpassed in intensity by a winning IPL cricket team, while its English equivalent would be a home city football celebration for Premier or Champions League winners.
The underlying message was that India’s chess ecosystem is strong, with over 80 grandmasters, over 120 international masters, and tens of thousands of rated players. It is the 21st century equivalent of the Soviet Union’s dominant decades in the 1940s and 1950s.
For Gukesh, the period of celebration will be short. Next month he starts play in the Netherlands at Tata Steel Wijk aan Zee, known as the chess Wimbledon and one of a trio of major tournaments in which the teenager needs to perform well to impress sceptics who believe that the quality of play in Singapore was below the best world championship standards.
Magnus Carlsen abdicated the world crown in 2023 after a 10-year reign, citing the drudgery of the months of preparation needed for a title match. Carlsen wrote: “ If Gukesh was playing Fabiano Caruana or Hikaru Nakamura in this match and played the same way, he would probably have had a very difficult time.” Caruana and Nakamura, America’s world No 2 and 3, were edged out by just half a point at the Toronto Candidates in April, when Gukesh qualified as the challenger.
However, Carlsen added that Gukesh at 18 has the potential to go on a run of tournament victories this year which could establish him as No 2 to the Norwegian, or even as No 1. For his part, Gukesh says that Carlsen is his idol, and that he recognises that the former champion is still ahead of him: “It’s a motivating factor, trying to reach the level of greatness that Magnus has achieved.”
What this means in practice is that for the period until his mandatory title defence in 2026, Gukesh will attempt to replicate Carlsen’s stellar results in top international events.
The triple crown of tournament chess, all of which Carlsen has won several times, consists of Wijk aan Zee in January, where Gukesh will compete but Carlsen will be absent, Norway Chess at Stavanger in May-June, where Carlsen and Gukesh have both just been confirmed as participants in 2025, and the Sinquefield Cup at St Louis in August, whose invited field has not yet been announced.
Gukesh also faces significant challenges from rivals, both older and contemporary, who have set their sights on winning the 2026 Candidates and then dethroning the young Indian. Caruana, the reigning US champion, is already close to securing his 2026 spot after victories in the recent US Masters and St Louis Masters. These successes gave the 32-year-old, who had been near to the world crown in 2018 and 2024, a likely 2026 Candidates place via the Fide Circuit.
Arjun Erigaisi, the 21-year-old world No 4 who has emerged as Gukesh’s main Indian rival, is also in the mix. It was significant that when Gukesh revealed his team of helpers who had aided his preparation for the match with Ding, there were only two Indians: his longtime mentor, the former world champion Vishy Anand, and Pentala Harikrishna, India’s No 7 who has resided in Prague for several years.
Neither Erigaisi, nor Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu, Gukesh’s leading colleagues on India’s gold medal Olympiad team, helped against Ding. This could be interpreted as a decision not to share their opening secrets in advance of future bids for the world title.
There is a general impression at the moment that Gukesh, still only 18, is sure to improve his all-round game in the next few years. Currently his style is arguably overly strategical, with limited creativity and with potential weaknesses in complex tactics and unclear positions.
However, there are some prominent examples which show that a grandmaster’s improvement between the late teens and early 20s is not guaranteed. One is Bobby Fischer, who in the spring of 1962 at age 19 won the Stockholm interzonal with impressive play and a wide margin. Fischer was a hot favourite to win the subsequent Candidates, but was never in the running and had to wait 10 years before becoming world champion.
Boris Spassky, at 19, tied third in the 1956 Candidates and was predicted to become the next challenger, but his career then stalled and it was more than a decade before he won the world crown. Most recently Alireza Firouzja became the youngest ever 2800-rated player at 18, and Carlsen even stated that he expected to meet him in a title match, but Firouzja went on to fail in two successive Candidates tournaments.
So the future for Gukesh remains uncertain. Will he be a short-lived chess king like his predecessor, or will he have, as he has himself predicted, a long and successful career? We will know better in a year’s time.
From the current Sunway Sitges tournament in Spain: the Ukrainian veteran Vasyl Ivanchuk wins in original style against England’s GM Danny Gormally.
3951: 1…Bh4+! 2 Kxh4 Qf2+ 3 Kg5 h6+! 4 Kxh6 Qh4 mate.
