Chess: After 6 months of being asked the same question, Gukesh finally answers by qualifying for Candidates

Over the last six months, India’s D Gukesh has been on something of a world tour. Since the FIDE World Cup in July-August in Azerbaijan’s Baku, the 17-year-old has not spent more than 10 days at a stretch at his home in Chennai as he chased a spot at the next year’s Candidates tournament relentlessly, whilst also attending to professional commitments around the world.

After the World Cup in Baku, Gukesh went to Germany for the FIDE World Rapid Team Championships, Kolkata for the Tata Steel India Rapid and Blitz event and the Asian Games national team camp, Germany again for the Armageddon event, China’s Hangzhou for the Asian Games, Doha for Qatar Masters and to the Isle of Man for the FIDE Grand Swiss. There were also pitstops at London for the London Classic before a door opened for him to edge closer to the Candidates with a last-minute Chennai Grand Masters event, where he did enough to edge ahead of Anish Giri in the FIDE Circuit race to the Candidates spot.

But Gukesh’s spot at the prestigious Candidates was sealed on Saturday at the FIDE World Rapid and Blitz tournament in Samrkand when Giri could not secure the top spot. Gukesh thus will join compatriots Praggnanandhaa R and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi at the eight-man Candidates in April next year — the first time ever three Indians will be competing at the event.

Finally Time to think abt Toronto!!
Grateful to Westbridge Capitals and @WacaChess,@vishy64theking ,@GajuChess ,@ChessGMVishnu for the huge help with training and team support and always believing and encouraging me even during tough times recently!#Candidates2024! pic.twitter.com/4QZneN374p

— Gukesh D (@DGukesh) December 30, 2023

‘Playing non-stop’

“He was playing non-stop over the last few months. The whole time he was on tour. Between the World Cup and the Grand Swiss, he didn’t come home,” Gukesh’s father Dr Rajini Kanth tells The Indian Express from Uzbekistan’s Samarkand, minutes after Gukesh’s spot is secured.

“At the start of the year, he was playing excellent chess. Even in the World Cup, he played his absolute best despite the twin pressures of qualifying for the Candidates and the narrative of him overhauling Vishy Anand’s rating. He had been working the whole year for this, but he had some last-minute hiccups to qualify. Last two months, he was not able to perform to his usual level because of the pressure to qualify and the exhaustion. So for sure, this is a big burden off his shoulders,” he adds.

The relentless travel weighed heavy on the young shoulders while the pressure of qualifying for the Candidates also bore on him mentally.

Thankful to @mkstalin sir,@Udhaystalin sir ,@SportsTN_ for the tremendous support to Chess by organising elite events like Olympiad 2022,Chennai Grandmasters 2023 giving us exposure and opportunity to shine and also encouraging us with timely financial assistance🙏 https://t.co/6q457sElEj pic.twitter.com/n4duvN1wtJ

— Gukesh D (@DGukesh) December 30, 2023

“He did not have too much rest in the last few months. That could have been avoided. But we had agreed to play in many events and signed contracts for them before the FIDE World Cup, so there was an obligation to play there. Probably we should have withdrawn from one or two rapid tournaments. But we didn’t want to pull out because once you agree to something it’s not good to turn back,” says Gukesh’s father. “At the Grand Swiss, he was not at his best. He was completely exhausted, which is why that tournament was an absolute disaster.”

At some point, Gukesh’s father reveals, they considered trying their luck to qualify for the Candidates through the other door: the ratings spot, which eventually went to Alireza Firouzja.

Insulated from chatter

The topic of him qualifying for the Candidates has inevitably chased him everywhere he has gone since August, when another Indian teenage phenom, Praggnanandhaa, made the cut at the FIDE World Cup. At the FIDE Grand Swiss in November, another Indian, Vidit, claimed a second spot for an Indian in the eight-man field to decide who would be the challenger to China’s Ding Liren in the next World Chess Championship.

To insulate him from the constant chatter of the Candidates, Gukesh’s parents never spoke of the tournament at home. But the topic would crop every public appearance he went to.

The people who have played a massive role in Gukesh’s chess career were present on the final day of Chennai Grand Masters 2023 – parents of Gukesh and the family of his trainer GM Vishnu Prasanna. In the 2nd picture you can see Gukesh having a relaxed time with Shri Deekshitha,… pic.twitter.com/rJ2vtCFbP5

— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) December 22, 2023

“In our house, we never spoke of all these things: goals or Candidates. But you cannot hide from the outside world, right? The moment he would step out of the house and go to compete at any tournament, he would be asked about his chances of making the Candidates. Even if he wanted to avoid it, it would be rattling about in his subconscious. He would inevitably be thinking about it. He would even be asked about it at felicitations,” says Gukesh’s father.

After securing the Candidates spot, Pragg’s coach RS Ramesh said that the teenager will ease off on events in the lead-up to the eight-man event in April.

For Gukesh though, there are a couple of events slotted in February.

“He will be playing in the Tata Steel event in Wijk aan Zee, the Netherlands. That’s a major event, which we cannot skip. Then there is the Magnus Carlsen Invitational, where only the top 8 players are playing. Not everyone gets a chance to play there against Magnus. We’ll see,” says the relieved father.

For now, though, Gukesh’s father says, the teenager is spending the evening with other prodigies from India like Pragg and Nihal Sarin to let their hair down if only for a brief moment.

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