18th champion at the youngest age of 18.
Magic.
I proxied the whole series via the famed agatmador youtube chess channel ( by FAR the best chess channel for anyone actually interested in chess, regardless of level of commitment to it, coz he explains why the best are doing what they are doing and what else could happen if they didnt, etc).
This series started off with Gukesh as the heavy favourite but Ding played to HIS strength.
What people may not know about Gukesh, is that the great (perhaps the greatest so far) Magnus says that Gukesh is by far the best 'calculator' guy in chess, calculating lines he's even never thought of in real time, but Gukesh is a very atypical elite chess player, in the sense that he is much more ordinary and middle of the pack in the blitz/rapid version of the game.
The world chess championships are a simple format : 14 classical games, winner :1 pt, draw: 0.5 pts each and loss: 0. First to 7.5 wins or if not, then comes tie-breaks. Which are rapid, then blitz : sections where Ding would hold decisive advantage ( 65-35 by betting odds, which are YUUUGE in elite chess fyi).
After initial wins exchanged by the two, situation became very clear by the time half a dozen games were played : Ding is playin for a draw, he wants to get to game 14 with scores tied, so that he has decisive advantage in the faster formats.
Gukesh realized this and in chess terms, he responded with the BRAVEST ways possible : to forego optimal moves and avert draws by making sub-optimal moves ( once game trends for draw, then making optimal moves speeds up the conclusion to a draw - a win is extremely hard to manufacture, as it involves making a slightly less optimal move, yet not a blunder that decisively loses game/ensures its lost soon etc).
But Ding, held strong, as Gukesh continued with upping the ante and creating new games outta known lines, just to give himself a shot to win.
Ding himself is a very strategically smart player - a player who can play to a 'goal' of trapping you/drawing you very well as an overall big picture guy and his playstyle is mostly that of positional excellence with a strong nose for exploiting weaknesses. Except, he has been having a terrible year and has spent most of the time hidden away from major chess spotlights, mostly because he has been prone to blunders & missed openings. Thats like a 2700 rated player making moves a 1800 rated player wont make, fyi.
Anyways, Gukesh kept up the pressure and finally breached the Ding wall in game 11 but Ding showed why he is world champion, by luring Gukesh into a trap by exploiting Gukesh's aggressiveness to level the score at game 12 again.
Game 13 followed the same script that game 7-11 followed : Gukesh attacking and Ding just playing for a draw, which he got.
And then Ding was so, so close to the finish line - he gets to end with white, where forcing draws is much easier as white, with the final key of his plan in his own hands - one more draw and he has Gukesh exactly where he wants him : in the rapids, where Gukesh will just hold on for time control alone, such is the pace of the game.
And then came the final game, at Ding's command and Ding got cocky, then crumbled. He opted for a weird opening as white, which is sub-optimal at best unless you are planning to play for the win by making sacrifices ( which ding most certainly was not ) and ended up giving up control of the centre to Gukesh by the opening moves- a tactically very bad idea against a calculator like Gukesh, since controlling centre = you have more options to play. He tries to develop it into the King's Indian ( an oddball attack that usually doesnt work at elite levels) but Gukesh ends up leveraging his dominance of the centre to end up with a much stronger king side pawn structure, when Ding falters and plays away from a draw by offering a pawn sacrifice ( in his haste maybe he thought that trading down material would work better for draw, but in this case it doesnt work) and Gukesh ends up a pawn up on Ding....a strong position for black but White still can draw rather easily -which Ding goes for, till his late game blunder.
And finally, so close to the finish line, Gukesh's pressure tactics finally worked. FINALLY he got a blunder outta Ding and when Gukesh himself saw it, he could barely contain himself - and the rest is history.
This was truly a contest to remember, where the veteral down on his luck tried to play a desperate rearguard to safety and almost succeeded, only to be finally defeated by a courageous, attacking 18 year old trying to seize the moment and truly playing like he had nothing to lose, yet not making crazy moves but just methodically going for victories.
Salute to Gukesh Dommaraju.
Some supreme concentration there. Was in the driver's seat pretty much for the whole game.
