After Chess Olympiad 2024 success, Gukesh to take his time for Ding Liren clash; Praggnanandhaa relieved with gold

Eat, sleep, win, repeat. This sums up D. Gukesh’s life lately as he set the stage alight at the Chess Olympiad 2024 with an extraordinary 9/10 performance, leading the Indian team to its historic first-ever gold medal at the event in Budapest.

The 18-year-old recorded a performance rating of 3056 — the highest in the tournament — and was the only player to cross the 3000 mark en route to an individual gold on Board 1. The India No. 2 behind Arjun Erigaisi, Gukesh, plans to continue his form, preparing for his World Championship match against China’s Ding Liren.

“I feel relieved. Especially during the Olympiad, I was playing well throughout the event, and I played some good chess; the results showed that. I am quite happy; I think I am doing the right things and just planning to continue that,” Gukesh said during a felicitation ceremony by the Velammal Nexus Group of Schools on Friday.

At the event, the group honoured five members of the gold medal-winning team — Gukesh, R. Praggnanandhaa, R. Vaishali, Srinath Narayanan, and Arjun Kalyan — and presented a cheque of Rs. 40 lakh to the winners at the Velammal Hall here.

Gukesh’s Olympiad success also netted him 30.1 Elo rating points, propelling him to World No. 5 with a live rating of 2794.1. Despite his rise, the ever-humble Gukesh admitted that he is still learning.

“Winning team gold is a big achievement, especially after falling short last time. But there are always things to improve. I’m still learning, and there’s a lot for me to work on,” he said.

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When asked about his upcoming World Championship match, Gukesh said, “For now, I’m just trying to play some good chess and good games, and I’m sure Ding will also come up with some fighting spirit, and we’ll have a very exciting and instructive match.”

“My next days, before the (World Championship) match, will have a bit of rest, a bit of training and a bit of playing. And then a bit of physical and mental strengthening.”

China benched reigning World Champion Ding in the seventh round of the Olympiad, denying the much-anticipated Gukesh vs. Ding clash. The Indian was ‘prepared’ for this move as he went on to play in-form Wei Yi and ended up beating him in the marathon six-hour match.

“I was prepared for either opponent (Wei Yi and Ding Liren). Ding had lost the previous (sixth) round to Le Quang Liem. It’s understandable that every player wants to recover after losing a game, so I was prepared for both, and it was probably my favourite game of the tournament,” Gukesh said.

Praised as “The Iceman” for his calm demeanour by his former coach Vishnu Prasanna, Gukesh also expressed gratitude for his early training.

“We started our collaboration when I was 11 years old. So it’s been six or seven years with him, and I’ve learned a lot. For the last two years, we haven’t really been working together; we stopped the chest work a bit earlier.”

“Right now, my trainer is (Grzegorz) Gajewski, but Vishnu sir and Raghavi (WIM Raghavi Nagarajan — Vishnu’s wife) have been a huge support to me, and right now they’re one of my best friends. Although we stopped working together, we still stayed in touch. We meet often, and I’m really glad to have such support,” he said.

Gukesh will face Ding for the World Championship in Singapore in November-December but will first compete in the European Club Cup, scheduled from October 19-27, 2024, in Serbia.

Meanwhile, Praggnanandhaa will join Gukesh in Serbia for the European Club Cup after competing in the second season of the Global Chess League in London.

Praggnanandhaa had an up-and-down year. After becoming only the second Indian, following five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand, to reach the World Cup final in 2023, he secured a mid-table (fifth-place) finish at the Candidates Tournament in Canada.

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At the Olympiad, Praggnanandhaa faced tough competition on Board 2 and performed solidly until the penultimate round, when he lost to USA’s Wesley So — the only defeat for the Indian team in the Open section.

“It was a tough game, the team’s only loss, and it was unlike me to collapse after a few moves. Honestly, I don’t know what went wrong; I didn’t have much time to analyse it. I didn’t give my best, but thanks to Gukesh and Arjun, they compensated for the loss,” he said.

Praggnanandhaa finished with six points in 10 games, winning three, drawing six, and losing one. Reflecting on his performance, he said, “I wouldn’t say I played very well. Things could have been better, but at the end of the day, we won team gold, and that’s what matters.”

While Gukesh and Arjun were racking up wins, holding strong opponents to a draw on Board 2 was no easy task for Praggnanandhaa, but his intentions were clear.

“I was obviously trying to play for a win, but sometimes I was also making decisions based on their games. But I would not say that cost me taking those draws. Guys on the second board were also very solid, so I was okay with the draws, and as I said, in the end, we wanted the team to win, which we managed to do,” he said.