When FIDE, the global governing body of chess, publishes its monthly rating list at the end of this month, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand will not be the top Indian in the published classical chess rankings for the first time in 36 years. Anand’s protege Gukesh D ensured he will end the month as the top-ranked Indian after his victory over Mistradin Iskandrov in the second round of the FIDE World Cup at Baku.
The end-of-the-month ratings list will also see Gukesh break into the top 10 ranks for the first time, a lightning-quick rise for a teenager who only broke into the top 100 at the end of April 2022. Only two Indians before this have been in the top 10 — Pentala Harikrishna, who went ahead of Anand briefly in the live ratings in 2016 is the other Indian to have achieved the feat.
Breaking into the top 10 is just one of the indicators of Gukesh’s potential. In July this year, the 17-year-old had edged past another former world champion, Magnus Carlsen, to become the youngest chess player to cross the 2750 ratings mark. He has also beaten the World No 1 on the board, becoming the youngest player to do so. The boy from Chennai was also the second youngest player to become a GM back in 2019.
“Over the last year and a half, Gukesh has convinced not only me but also many people of his talent. His dedication for chess is something that borders on fanaticism. He likes to work and study the game a lot. He just brings a great attitude to the game. I was convinced he has the potential. But now I’m seeing more and more in him the components he will need to stay at the top: attitude, determination, willingness to experiment and take risks. He’s very courageous,” Anand had told The Indian Express from Baku before the start of the FIDE World Cup.
So what makes him different from the other Indian teenage stars, who seem to have sprung up in plenty over the past six years?
Two things stand out: his dislike for online chess played for fun, and how late he started using chess engines.
The Chennai boy didn’t use an engine till he had crossed a rating of 2550. His trainer GM Vishnu Prasanna, who was also India’s 33rd grandmaster, says Gukesh is a “very rare exception” in the sport given how there are kids as young as seven or eight who use engines.
“It’s almost unheard of. The plan was for him to start using an engine when he finds himself in a crisis or hits a roadblock. To test our theories, we would usually rely on tournaments. But because of the pandemic, he couldn’t really play in events as there were no over-the-board tournaments. So the pandemic forced us to make the decision,” Vishnu said.
Another thing that nudged Gukesh to start using engines was him getting picked to train at the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy, where the young crop of teenage Indian players handpicked by Anand would work on things like their openings with computers.
Making the best of the pandemic
Vishnu first met Gukesh in June 2017 when the youngster had come to Vishnu’s chess academy for a group training camp. Vishnu remembers thinking that Gukesh was talented. But, at the time, talent was in abundance, with Vishnu also training players like GM Leon Mendonca. As he got to know Gukesh better, the elements of what separated Gukesh started to become apparent.
“He was a bit mature for his age. So he was ready to do some complex work, which maybe the others were not ready for. He was not as playful as the other children. He was just focussed on going forward. He was always looking for a way to go forward,” said Vishnu.
As Anand pointed out, it was inevitable that someone would eventually catch up to him, particularly since the five-time world champion has eased off from playing in the world championship cycle events in recent years. But a better measure of Gukesh’s meteoric rise is how he has outpaced his equally-talented peers to get into the top 10.
The year 2018 was one where India had a groundswell of GMs. Out of the eight players that earned their final grandmaster norm that year were Praggnanandhaa R, Nihal Sarin and Arjun Erigaisi, all of whom have been heralded as the future of Indian chess. Gukesh became a GM one year after that trio.
But the pandemic was the period he edged past his equally-talented peers.
“Before the lockdown I was just a normal GM. I wasn’t anything too special. I was rated around 2550, playing good tournaments from time to time. But the two years from 2021 and 2022 really changed my career. I made a huge leap. It’s only because of the work that I put in during the lockdown. I couldn’t have imagined being here before the lockdown!” Gukesh had told The Indian Express in June.
The teenager had a rating of 2563 back in March 2020 when the world was reeling under the weight of pandemic-enforced lockdowns. For a boy who was playing as many as 230 matches each year before the pandemic, it was a frustrating period. But as the immediate future seemed to get hazy, Gukesh clung on to a throwaway quote from world champion Vladimir Kramnik. “At the end of the pandemic, we’ll know who used the phase well and who was just wasting their time,” the Russian had said.
For Gukesh, it became a mantra.
“In the pandemic, Gukesh was repetitive with his preparations even though there was no tournament in sight. It wasn’t clear what he was preparing for. He doesn’t play online tournaments for fun, unlike many others. If he plays online chess, he’s competing in a tournament. Or he’ll be playing practice games against his sparring partners. He was not like others who were playing on chess portals very frequently during the lockdown.
“The handful of online tournaments he played in the pandemic were mostly classical ones. He didn’t enjoy playing online. Until recently, he was not fond of rapid and blitz events either. But now he’s warmed up to it and he’s doing well in those too,” said Vishnu, who went on to add: “The other thing that separates Gukesh from the others in his age group is consistency. He’s played in multiple super events and has not had a bad tournament at all. He’s never finished at the bottom of the rankings. That’s really hard: to jump from one level to another level (and find your footing). The guys at the top are quite brutal.”
Despite the challenges ahead, the man who Gukesh surpassed to become the country’s No 1 is convinced of the teenager’s talent.
“Did I think he could overtake me? It was inevitable that someone would. But he has even more potential (than just overtaking Anand). He was one of the easiest people to bet on,” said Anand.
Gukesh broke into the top 10 ranks for the first time this week, a lightning-quick rise for a teenager who only broke into the top 100 at the end of April 2022. (PHOTO: FIDE/Anna Shtourman) 
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