When D Gukesh won the FIDE World Championship in Singapore last night, the suddenness of the endgame, following a massive blunder from Ding Liren, shocked the chess world. The expressions on the faces of the two players, their support staff, their families, and the near-meltdown on the various streams told the story -- this was a result out of the blue.
Although the final moments may have been dramatic, so it seemed Gukesh had manufactured a win, this was all thought out well before the world championship even began. Gukesh's team had a plan: they knew he would have the better stamina, and therefore, the ability to play longer matches. The plan never changed from game 1 to game 14, not even when, midway through, Gukesh confessed to his team that he was scared of losing.
No short draws. No uneventful games. He would try and push his chances, sometimes even to the extremes, even if it meant risking a disadvantageous position or two. He did that twice in the first half of the championship, rejecting draws by three-fold repetition. There was more chess to play in those positions, was his message.
Those refused draws surprised many, including the great Viswanathan Anand, but it was all part of the plan.
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In the end, that psychological aspect of knowing Gukesh won't play for a draw would've affected Ding, too. In game 14, Ding would have known that he would have to defend precisely for a few hours before finally convincing Gukesh to take the peace accord. For once, Ding did not manage to find the precise defence, as he'd done so often in the 13 games preceding it.
Ding had already done an excellent job of frustrating Gukesh. It went to the extent that after game 9, Gukesh went up to Grzegorz Gajewski and told him for the first time that he was afraid of losing, and that it was making him nervous. It was a startling admission for Gajewski himself. In the almost three years that he had been Gukesh's trainer, confidence had never been an issue. For the first time, he sensed doubt.
He understood why doubt had crept into Gukesh's thinking. The Indian had created opportunities to win, and in games 7 and 8, they were more than tangible chances. But he had made a couple of inaccurate decisions, and Ding was defending for his life. Gukesh would later go on to say that what Ding was showing during the match had been inspiring to him, but at the time, it was eating at him. So, on the rest day after game 9, they went to the beach, they played some squash, Gajewski wanted Gukesh to forget about his fear. He succeeded.
That loss in game 12 could've been debilitating, particularly after the highs of game 11. However, Gukesh had experienced such a crushing loss before. He was in a great position, and then in a time scramble, lost to Alireza Firouzja at the Candidates Tournament. He would later go on to say that was eventually the moment he realised he could win the whole thing, because he felt that good about his chess.
Paddy Upton, his mental conditioning coach, told ESPN that the first time he spoke to Gukesh during the match was after game 12. Even after such a loss, Upton sensed that the youngster was in the perfect mindspace. In fact, it was so good that Upton decided on a whim to fly out to Singapore to be with the 18-year-old through the home stretch.
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Gajewski, though, had previous experience with Gukesh not being in the best zone. Right before the 2023 Chennai Grandmasters tournament, he dealt with Gukesh in a slump. Gukesh needed to win the tournament for him to qualify for the candidates, but he wasn't in the best form, and neither was he in the best mindset. Eventually, he won that tournament, and the rest, as they say, is history.
The Gukesh that turned up in game 14 was the one that Gajewski had grown so used to -- the boy who loved chess so much you just couldn't keep him away from the board. That helped them in what they did in preparation as well. Coming into the world championship, they'd worked really hard on their openings, which was widely recognised as an area of the game Gukesh needed to improve at.
There were some openings that they decided on at the last moment. There were some that they'd prepared weeks in advance and revised time and time again. All that preparation paid off, as Gukesh got Ding by surprise in the openings in almost every game, making the Chinese player spend a large chunk of his time trying to understand positions in the openings.
When he kept creating chances after those surprises and didn't take them, Gukesh's team knew he shouldn't change anything. At some point, they thought, Ding would crack. In fact, Gukesh's team were only impressed by Ding's ability to hold on at such a high level for as long as he did, particularly his win in game 12.
But eventually, the pressure and the nerves told. The blunder came when they least expected it. But it came in the way they most expected it -- after a long game with Gukesh just pushing for as long as he humanly could.
The plan was only too simple -- for Gukesh to be Gukesh. That would give him his best chance to be world champion. How nice it must be when a plan comes together to proclaim the new king of the world.