D. Gukesh holding the prestigious Candidates award
| Photo Credit: Srinivas Aditya P 2127@Chennai
Grandmaster (GM) D. Gukesh pulled off an exceptional achievement by successful the prestigious FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2024, a.okay.a. Candidates, scoring 9 factors out of 14 video games. At the younger age of 17, he has outshone a few of the greatest chess gamers in the world. He is the youngest winner of the Candidates. The match, which was first carried out in 1950, has seen 25 editions to this point (Table 1).
Table 1 | The desk exhibits the winners of the Candidates, the 12 months of the match, age at which the participant received the match and the incumbent champion of the match.
Note: The age of the gamers had been calculated based mostly on approximate distinction in years and never precise dates
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Two different Indians — fellow Chennai teenager GM R. Praggnanandhaa and GM Vidit Gujrathi — carried out creditably scoring seven and 6 factors, respectively, in the open part of the 2024 match. GM Koneru Humpy and GM-elect R. Vaishali did properly to end third in the ladies’s part. Gukesh can also be the first Indian to win the Candidates since GM Viswanathan Anand received the match in 2014 and earned him a rematch for the World Championship in opposition to GM Magnus Carlsen.
Table 2 | The desk exhibits Gukesh’s common transfer accuracy, the title of his opponent and their common transfer accuracy in all the 14 rounds of the match.
Gukesh’s victory in the match was the results of his all-round consistency and secure play. According to Chess.com, Gukesh’s common transfer accuracy in the estimation of high-performing chess engines in all 14 rounds was 95.4% versus his opponents’ 93.6% (Table 2). He additionally led the match in wins (5), shedding solely as soon as to GM Alireza Firouzja, after committing last-minute blunders. He defeated the match’s lowest-rated participant, Nijat Abasov, twice; his compatriots Praggnanandhaa and Gujrathi as soon as every; and avenged his loss in opposition to Firouzja in the penultimate spherical. He additionally drew comfortably in his video games in opposition to the higher-rated GMs Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Hikaru Nakamura. All three of them completed half some extent behind Gukesh.
Also learn: Chess: D. Gukesh profile | A younger knight who has the armoury to reign supreme
Gukesh is at the moment India’s top-rated participant in FIDE reside scores with 2763.Four factors, simply two forward of GM Arjun Erigaisi. Anand, Praggnanandhaa, and Gujrathi are the different three in the prime 5. Gukesh has additionally grow to be the world no. 6 in reside scores, behind GMs Carlsen (2830), Caruana (2805.4), Nakamura (2794.4), and Nodirbek Abdusattarov (2765), who can also be a youngster.
His opponent in the FIDE World Championships, scheduled for November 2024, is incumbent champion GM Ding Liren of China. Interestingly, Ding is at the moment ranked world no. 7 and, with 2762 factors, solely two behind Gukesh. But with a peak ELO of 2816 and being one among simply 15 GMs to cross the super-elite score of 2800 (in reside scores), he will likely be a tricky opponent.
The ladies’s championship is about to be an all-Chinese affair between GMs Tan Zhongyi (the challenger) and Ju Wenjun (the incumbent). Gukesh may have an opportunity to thwart a repeat of the Chinese stranglehold over each championships in 2023.
Chart 3 | The chart exhibits compares Gukesh’s score factors over time, with that of tremendous GMs Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri and Alireza Firouzja.
Gukesh’s ascendancy to turning into the challenger to the world crown isn’t an accident. Chart 3 exhibits how his trajectory matches that of tremendous GMs like Carlsen, Anish Giri, and Firouzja. All of them had been additionally baby prodigies who went on to grow to be formidable elite gamers.
But whereas Gukesh turned the first participant to supplant Anand as the highest-rated Indian final 12 months, he suffered a virtually 40-point drop in ELO scores between October and December 2023, from 2758 to 2720. He subsequently managed to give you convincing performances to hike his scores steadily again to attain a brand new peak of 2763.4 (reside) by the finish of the Candidates. If he continues to keep this kind, a rewriting of the document books by the finish of the World Championships could be so as.
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