An 18-year-old Indian has the chance to do the craziest thing. Three weeks from now, chess could very well be looking at its youngest ever undisputed world champion. D Gukesh - he showed up in his school uniform to accept a Mercedes Benz E-Class lavished on him by his Chennai alma mater a couple of months ago - goes up against China's defending champion Ding Liren as a significant favourite in the World Championship match starting in Singapore on Monday.
Gukesh, 18, has been in pretty rampaging touch while Ding hasn't had a classical win in over 300 days. As things stand, the match-up appears lopsided, unless Ding, 32, manages to summon some fight and make Gukesh's path to history difficult. Who can forget Ding's bold self-pin in the rapid playoff to become world champion last year?
It's the first time that an Indian other than Viswanathan Anand will feature in the title match - which happens to be the highest prize in chess. Ten years ago, Anand - he won the world title five times - played the World Championship match for the last time, losing to Magnus Carlsen in Sochi, Russia. Carlsen ruled with an iron fist until he decided that he had had his fill of these matches and the painstaking preparation they demanded. He walked away with an unbeaten reign of close to a decade. By virtue of having finished second in the Candidates tournament behind Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ding was the automatic choice to fill in then. Gukesh earned the right to play this year's match after he became the youngest Candidates winner at 17.
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