Even though I do not believe as highly as I did in September that the World Championship between China’s Ding Liren and teammate D Gukesh will be a massacre, I still think that it will be a one-sided event. This is because Gukesh was in stellar form then with almost zero bad results except for the European Club Chess (ECC) 2024 in London in October. After all, he is also human and could have bad results too.
I am confident that Gukesh will definitely try to exert maximum pressure right from the start. It might be possible that he will feel some nerves at the start, but I believe that after some games, he will adjust to it. Nevertheless, I would advise him to not count himself as a huge favourite going into the Championship because it might lead to being overconfident and make him take things easily. I believe Gukesh would just focus on his preparation just like I do. We both enjoy chess and that is the most important thing to do.
Over the years, my takeaway from him is his utmost dedication to chess as does not have absolutely any habit outside of the sport. It is a very mature thing to have (laughs), it is more with him than me. His resilience is remarkable too. I remember we had a Speed Chess Championship match (blitz) and he did not give up even though he was trailing (match ended 18-8). The fact that he did not give up and still tried to find the best moves when most people would speak volumes.
One of our initial meetings is from 2021 when we played a couple of open tournaments in Portugal. We had a long five to six hours of journey from Lisbon to another city where it was me, him and his dad in the car. So that is where we spoke first and most of the discussion pertained to chess. As a chess fan, it is not pleasant for Ding Liren (who has seen a considerable dip in form). It is not pleasant to see that. I really hope he recovers and puts up a good fight so that it turns out to be a close championship. I wish the best for him as well.
Gukesh recently trained with renowned mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton (who has also worked with Indian men’s cricket and hockey teams) and it is always important to be in good spirits. Chess is a mental sport, especially for an event like the World Championship. For instance, take the 2021 World Championship match of Magnus (Carlsen) against Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russian GM). It started out with five draws, but then Nepomniachtchi lost the sixth game and that just tilted him and then it was totally a one-sided match. If he would have worked more on his psychological aspect, maybe it could have been a closer match.
I have heard about cheating allegations from Nepo, (Hikaru) Nakamura and (Alexander) Grishchuk but did not give much thought into it. People have their views but it is not correct to jump into the conclusion. At the end of the day, if it affects negatively it would affect them only. As one of us (Erigaisi, Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrati) makes their debut in WC, it feels really good. As a chess plan that an Indian is playing for a world title and that too at such a young age, no one has done this before, and it is a huge record.
(As told to Ajay Tomar ahead of World Chess Championships)
