By Pranay

Copyright thehindubusinessline

Heavy is the head that wears the crown. This sums up D Gukesh’s nearly year-long reign as World Chess Champion.

It was a miracle in itself that he qualified for the World Chess Championship final.

Gukesh, who was businessline’s Young Changemaker 2024, reached the summit clash after wading through the cream of the crop – with the exception of Magnus Carlsen – at the Candidates 2024, where he was seeded third from the bottom.

His prospects in the final exuded optimism only thanks to the poor form of the defending champion, China’s Ding Liren. Nevertheless, many deemed the challenge to be too tall for Gukesh, still just 18 and yet to stamp his authority among his peers.

To make it worse, Gukesh fumbled in the opener of the 14-game final, tipping the pressure scale further against himself. But he was unfazed. He clawed his way back with some resolute play, drawing level in the third game and then nicking the lead by the 11th. Ding struck back in the 12th game, and the final looked destined for the tiebreaks as the 14th and final classical game began.

Destiny – and Gukesh – had other ideas, though. With the stakes at an incomprehensible level, the Chennai native kept the game alive long enough for his opponent to blunder in a fevered endgame to claim a historic win.

The triumph, which made him the youngest World Chess Champion ever, catapulted him to global fame in an instant as appreciation, accolades and sponsorships poured in unimpeded.

Barbs galore

But the wreath of glory soon revealed itself to be one studded with thorns. Gukesh’s stunningly rapid rise to the top didn’t sit well with a few of the global chess elite, who posed questions about the credibility of his perfectly legitimate world title.

This included chess legend Garry Kasparov. “I have to apologise time and again. It’s not exactly the title that I had or Karpov had or Fischer or Magnus.” It also didn’t help that Gukesh has so far failed to claim a title since his crowning moment in Singapore last year.

There were a few near brushes with victory – a tiebreaker defeat at the Tata Steel Chess Masters against compatriot R Praggnanandhaa and third-place finishes at the Norway Chess and GCT Rapid & Blitz Croatia. The downward spiral continued at the recently concluded FIDE Grand Swiss, where he suffered three defeats on the trot as he finished a lowly 41st in a 116-player field.

Despite finding himself in an unenviable vortex of criticism and self-doubt, Gukesh is still the rightful world champion. It is a title earned through established means and one that he will hold at least until the end of next year, when the next World Championship final will happen.

Published on September 17, 2025