D. Gukesh holding the prestigious Candidates award
| Photo Credit: Srinivas Aditya P 2127@Chennai
Grandmaster (GM) D. Gukesh pulled off an exceptional achievement by profitable the prestigious FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2024, a.okay.a. Candidates, scoring 9 points out of 14 video games. At the younger age of 17, he has outshone a few of the finest chess gamers in the world. He is the youngest winner of the Candidates. The match, which was first performed 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 player won the match and the incumbent champion of the match.
Note: The age of the gamers have been calculated based mostly on approximate distinction in years and not actual dates
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Two different Indians — fellow Chennai teenager GM R. Praggnanandhaa and GM Vidit Gujrathi — carried out creditably scoring seven and six points, respectively, in the open part of the 2024 match. GM Koneru Humpy and GM-elect R. Vaishali did properly to complete third in the ladies’s part. Gukesh is additionally the first Indian to win the Candidates since GM Viswanathan Anand won the match in 2014 and earned him a rematch for the World Championship towards 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), dropping solely as soon as to GM Alireza Firouzja, after committing last-minute blunders. He defeated the match’s lowest-rated player, Nijat Abasov, twice; his compatriots Praggnanandhaa and Gujrathi as soon as every; and avenged his loss towards Firouzja in the penultimate spherical. He additionally drew comfortably in his video games towards the higher-rated GMs Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Hikaru Nakamura. All three of them completed half a degree behind Gukesh.
Also learn: Chess: D. Gukesh profile | A younger knight who has the armoury to reign supreme
Gukesh is currently India’s top-rated player in FIDE dwell scores with 2763.4 points, simply two forward of GM Arjun Erigaisi. Anand, Praggnanandhaa, and Gujrathi are the different three in the prime 5. Gukesh has additionally develop into the world no. 6 in dwell scores, behind GMs Carlsen (2830), Caruana (2805.4), Nakamura (2794.4), and Nodirbek Abdusattarov (2765), who is additionally a young person.
His opponent in the FIDE World Championships, scheduled for November 2024, is incumbent champion GM Ding Liren of China. Interestingly, Ding is currently ranked world no. 7 and, with 2762 points, solely two behind Gukesh. But with a peak ELO of 2816 and being considered one of simply 15 GMs to cross the super-elite ranking of 2800 (in dwell scores), he shall be a troublesome opponent.
The ladies’s championship is set 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 ranking points 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 have been additionally baby prodigies who went on to develop into formidable elite gamers.
But whereas Gukesh turned the first player 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 come back up with convincing performances to hike his scores steadily again to achieve a brand new peak of 2763.4 (dwell) by the finish of the Candidates. If he continues to keep up this way, a rewriting of the document books by the finish of the World Championships could be so as.
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