CHENNAI: Chess players are notorious for not exhibiting emotions immediately after the match. Even if it's a positive result, they are more focused on rearranging the pieces while having an immediate post game debrief with their opponents across the table. It's how its been for more than a century. Emotions are reserved for very special occasions like winning the World Cup or the World Championship.
D Gukesh made a break from that unwritten convention after seeing off Fabiano Caruana at the Global Chess League (GCL) on Thursday. On the competition's fifth day, the 19-year-old, winless after four games, played precise chess with the white pieces to put the US GM under immediate pressure. Caruana, against the clock, threw in the towel with a few seconds remaining and with check mate around the corner. Gukesh immediately fist-pumped not once but two times. The world champion, representing PBG Alaskan Knights, had won his first game of the meet. Immediately, the crowd inside the Royal Opera House started serenading the Indian with chants of 'Gukesh, Gukesh'.
It's natural to understand why there's always intense scrutiny on Gukesh. India may be a sports-loving nation but it's still a country that hasn't produced enough world-beating champions. It's why there's always a spotlight — and adulation — on the champions it has produced, both current and former. That feeling is exacerbated in chess, a game enjoying a boom time in India thanks to the achievements of Gukesh and his peers over the last three years or so both in individual and team events, where there are three Indian men in the world's top-10 (four Indian women in the world's top-20 among women).
But Gukesh is an outlier to most of the other champions in India because he has generally been interview shy. Since becoming world champion in that heady Singapore night over a year ago, you can count on your fingers the number of full interviews he has granted to Indian publications outside of Chessbase India. He generally doesn't talk during tournaments — something common to a lot of elite chess players outside of the cursory comments related to the match — but outside it, it's very understandable that he likes to switch off.
At the league hotel a few days ago, he was largely relaxed as he made conversation with his teammates. He had a ready smile on his face as he dined with his Indian and overseas teammates. When a hotel guest couple of decades older than him had walked up to him and placed himself in his table, he was more than happy to welcome him like a long lost friend.
But beneath that calm exterior, some doubts have swirled around the Indian teen superstar. Since becoming world champion last year, his form has been up and down and players questioning the credibility of his reign have refused to go away. Should the world champion be the world's best player is a philosophical sports-related question that gets thrown up often. In chess, it has received significant airtime after Magnus Carlsen abdicated the throne in 2022.
Viswanathan Anand, the only other Indian who knows what it takes to become a world champion in the Classical format, said: "He won't play, he's not competing in the Classical level anymore," Anand said. "Under those circumstances, it's also strange to say the sport must stop. It's never been richer in terms of youngsters. What I find really heartening is the way younger player play the Classical format. They are willing to experiment play everything." Speaking specifically about the young Indian world champion, Anand said 'I would tell him to ignore it (the outside noise)'. "Not in a dismissive way, he himself can see that some of the results can be worked on. But he will be fine."
But what's also undeniable is the world champion has an aura that the other players simply don't have thanks to the label. Hou Yifan, a former multiple women's world champion, agreed to this sentiment. After a relatively quiet 2025, Gukesh prepares for a big 2026 where he will not only defend the world title but will also defend multiple Olympiad gold.
On Friday, he again reminded chess fans the rich talent he possesses. He handed Alireza Firouzja a first defeat in the tournament after five straight wins.
Results (Day Six): Alpine SG Pipers 12-8 Triveni Continental Kings, PBG Alaskan Knights 9-7 Fyers American Gambits, Upgrad Mumba Masters 11-6 Ganges Grandmasters.
