Gukesh takes giant leap towards title

On Sunday, D Gukesh took a giant step towards becoming the youngest world chess champion in history after beating Ding Liren with White pieces.

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

THIS kid, eh? He doesn't know when he's beaten. He doesn't say no to a completely new challenge. And he very politely takes down a world champion.

With his second win, the match is now 6-5 in the Indian's favour with three games to go. If he can avoid defeat in the remaining games, he will become only the second from India to hold the biggest crown in all of chess.

That paragraph, however, barely scratches the surface of what transpired on a manic Sunday. It had more twists and turns than the many rides and attractions at Universal Studios, one of the neighbouring landmarks in Sentosa. If Saturday's game was a snoozefest, this caught fire as soon as Gukesh revealed his hands by playing an Opening he had never before played in his relatively short competitive career (Reti, Reversed Blumenfeld Gambit). Because this game hadn't been part of the Indian's repertoire, Liren was off prep after a couple of moves. His position was already complicated after he made the committal 3...c5 rather than the more unsexy but solid e3. When Gukesh blitzed out his response, Liren was already unhappy. He didn't like where this was going so he settled in for a very deep thinking state. By the time he made his next two moves, his opponent had achieved his opening goal.