Gukesh brings a new way of playing the game. Who will he face in 2026

Look at the final game between Gukesh and Ding Liren: It’s 100 per cent over the board. If the 14th game between Gukesh and Ding was being played 20 or 30 years back or 24 years ago, when Kasparov and Kramnik were on the hot seats, the two Russians may have agreed to a draw at some earlier stage. But now chess has become a fight. You are not going to give up a draw even in a drawn position.

This sort of “fighting chess” is now going to be the norm because the youngsters have energy. Their physical strength and mental strength is enormous. Mentally, they don’t get tired.

It must be mentioned that the final wasn’t one of Gukesh’s best performances. It was the occasion that made it special. Neeraj Chopra also won the Olympics gold without throwing his personal best.

What makes Gukesh stand out is that he’s a very original player. He is like the architect and engineer of his own position. He thinks of a position, he then builds it himself. In that way, he can be compared with young Anatoly Karpov. Gukesh is very creative. In any position, he has the capacity to not allow be forced into a draw by the opponent. If I play an equal position, my opponent can manage to exchange pieces and make a draw. But Gukesh prevents those exchanges. He prevents the simplification.

If you’re playing for the pleasure of the game, trying to win the game on every occasion, you play well. If you think, “I don’t know what to do, I’ll try to make a draw”, like Ding did in the last game, you’ll lose. As the Russian proverb goes, “the easiest way to lose is to play for a draw”.

Gukesh has the ability to find a plan in a position which otherwise looks dead and with an accuracy of calculation. Originality is like art. And calculation is mathematics. Gukesh is good at both: He is artistic and imaginative. At the same time, he is accurate. Not to forget that he has immense confidence in himself. But he is not overconfident. He is not afraid of big names. And he has an absurd grasp of the position, which perhaps other players at his level didn’t.

All over the world, the atmosphere we see in India is missing. There are phenomenal players in other countries too. Kazakhstan, for example, has Bibisara Assaubayeva and Uzbekistan has Nodirbek Abdusattorov who won the World Rapid Championship at the age of 17 by defeating Magnus Carlsen. But somewhere, these talents halt at that stage. What has happened — particularly in the case of Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi — is that they are progressing continuously, without a stop.

There are a few reasons for this. Indian players seem to be very devoted and hardworking. They work 10 to 11 hours everyday.

This atmosphere is not because of the system. It’s a product of the hard work of parents of chess players and the players themselves. Only in specific regions of India are players getting sponsorships. That also mostly comes from private effort, (like if the parents know somebody who can contribute). Sponsors are backing players who belong to a particular region or speak a particular language. There is no system supporting players until they have proven themselves.

Before the Covid lockdowns, we had 1,06,000 registered players. But only 36,000 registered players play in tournaments. So maybe it’s an earthquake. But it’s happening in a very limited area. This is not the way the USSR was doing it. When Kasparov won the World Championship, I was in Moscow. He mentioned there that they had 4.5 million players playing in tournaments!

But despite the barricades in Indian chess at the moment, the day is not far when the world championship match will see two Indians playing against each other. I expect Gukesh to be challenged by one of the Indian players in 2026. I feel there’s a high probability of this happening. At the moment, Arjun looks like the most probable candidate.

Thipsay is the third grandmaster from India, an Arjuna award winner and chess coach. He spoke to Amit Kamath