D. Gukesh is the deserving winner of the Candidates tournament. The story of the last two rounds was only about him. He has become the youngest challenger in history.
In his very first Candidates tournament, against some of the strongest players of all time, some of whom have played four or five Candidates tournaments, and Ian Nepomniachtchi, the winner of the last two Candidates, he handled the pressure well.
Gukesh was the only one whose level didn’t fluctuate very much. In the 13th round, against Alireza Firouzja, the opening didn’t go well, and he was looking for play. But unexpected things started to happen under pressure.
Gukesh was the calmer player. His moves were steady, and when Firouzja started to overreach, he grabbed the advantage and converted it most efficiently, which is very difficult when you realise the implications of what you are doing, that you are going to take the lead in the tournament, and so on.
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The pressure was only going to build. Fabiano Caruana defeated R. Praggnanandhaa. Then we had a dramatic last round, in which only a win against Hikaru Nakamura would have guaranteed Gukesh first place, and he was black. He once again played one of his unusual openings in Queen’s Gambit Accepted.
Nakamura never seemed to find his way against Gukesh and was very soon worse. But the advantage was not big enough for Gukesh to play for a win. He got the draw, which at least guaranteed him the tie-break.
Gukesh (left) of India and Fabiano Caruana of USA drew as the Indian became the youngest player ever to win the Candidates | Photo Credit: PTI
He was facing a tiebreaker for some time, as Nepomniachtchi had managed to get into a lost position against Caruana; that was the situation for two hours. Occasionally Caruana would slip, Nepomniachtchi’s position would improve, and a few seconds later, the old evaluation would be restored.
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The participants must have been under enormous pressure at the end of such a long tournament. Ironically, the youngest participant coped with it the best, and the more experienced ones cracked. It shows the enormous mental strength of Gukesh. Caruana and Nakamura managed to win late games, showing their class bringing more pressure on Gukesh.
Caruana and Nakamura didn’t have the strongest tournaments, but they waited for their moment and grabbed the chance at the last minute. It was worrying for Gukesh that Caruana and Nakamura were peaking at the end.
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But Caruana, who has won many games with smaller advantages than what he had against Nepomniachtchi, was unable to withstand the pressure. He got confused about a position where there could have been four queens on the board and then had to come back to make a draw.
In the women’s tournament, only the two Chinese participants had any mathematical possibilities. In the end, Lei Tingjie lost to both the Indian participants, R. Vaishali, who scored five wins in a row after four straight defeats, and Koneru Humpy, who rescued her tournament in the end. Tan Zhongyi was the deserved winner by a big margin.
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