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Chess Tidbits |
Gukesh is the new Classical World Chess Champion
18-year-old D. Gukesh, who was the youngest challenger to the World champion title, beat 32-year-old Ding Liren from China in a close match (7.5-6.5) to become the youngest undisputed world champion in Dec 2024. Contrary to popular perception, Ding led from the first game and the lead changed hands several times during the course of the match, and after 13 games, the score was tied at 6.5 apiece. The final 14th game proved to be crucial where the former world champion was in an advantageous position early on, then forced simplification to a pawn-down position which was still equal, until he blundered into a dead-lost King and pawn endgame. 55..Rf2?? will go into record books as another instance of a world championship blunder leading to a heart-break to his fans.
The panel below contains 5 games:
- Gukesh D. vs. Ding Liren, 2024 WCC, R1, Singapore (0-1)
- Gukesh D. vs. Ding Liren, 2024 WCC, R3, Singapore (1-0)
- Gukesh D. vs. Ding Liren, 2024 WCC, R11, Singapore (1-0)
- Ding Liren vs. Gukesh D., 2024 WCC, R12, Singapore (1-0)
- Ding Liren vs. Gukesh D., 2024 WCC, R14, Singapore (0-1)
- Praggnanandhaa,Rameshbabu - Gukesh,Dommaraju
- Gukesh,Dommaraju - Erigaisi, Arjun
- Keymer, Vincent - Praggnanandhaa, Rameshbabu
- Abdusattorov, Nodirbek - Gukesh, Dommaraju
Tata Masters 2025
R. Praggnanandhaa beat Gukesh in a thrilling tie-breaker at Wijk an Zee. He is the first Indian since Viswanathan Anand (in 2006) to win this prestigious event.
In the crucial penultimate round 13, both frontrunners Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa lost to Arjun Erigaisi and Vincent Keymer respectively. In the final blitz playoff, Prag won 2 games and lost 1 to take the title. Abdusattorov narrowly missed reaching the blitz playoff and came 3rd. The 13th round disaster of the leaders reminded everyone of the 2013 Candidates where the leaders, Carlsen and Kramnik, lost to spoilers Peter Svidler and Vasyl Ivanchuk respectively.
GM Thai Dai Van Nguyen won the Challengers.
The panel below contains 4 games:
Freestyle Chess Grand Slam
Vincent Keymer won the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam (aka Chess960 or Fischer Random Chess) event in Weissenhaus. The tournament could hardly have been smoother for Keymer, who convincingly won every match he played. He was undefeated against Firouzja, Carlsen and Caruana. He closed out each match the same way: a win in the first game and a draw in the second. In a standout performance, the 20-year-old German defeated the World #1 Carlsen and World #2 Caruana enroute to winning the event, reminiscent of Ivanchuk's sparkling performances in 1991 Linares and 2013 Candidates.
Keymer won $200,000 while runner-up Caruana received $140,000. We will see both players in action again at the next Grand Slam event in Paris. Carlsen came third, a big letdown given his unenviable record in speed chess. Even worse, newly-crowned World champion Gukesh ended in eighth and bottom position after losing to Iranian-French grandmaster Alireza Firouzja in their seventh-place playoff match reminding us of Ding Liren's disaster in his first tournament after becoming world champion. With not a single win, Weissenhaus tournament is one Gukesh would really regret playing.
Final standings:
1. Vincent Keymer; 2. Fabiano Caruana; 3. Magnus Carlsen; 4. Javokhir Sindarov; 5. Hikaru Nakamura; 6. Nodirbek Abdusattorov; 7. Alireza Firouzja; 8. D Gukesh.
World Junior Chess Championship 2025
Pranav Venkatesh won the World Junior Chess Championship held in Montenegro on 7 March 2025. He became the fourth Indian man to win the World Junior title after Viswanathan Anand (1987), Pentala Harikrishna (2004) and Abhijeet Gupta (2008). In addition, Humpy (2001), Harika (2008) and Divya Deshmukh (2024) are the winners among women. Two players tied for second place with 8.5/11 - Matic Lavrenčič (Silver) and Elham Amar (bronze).
Chess legend Viswanathan Anand was quick to acknowledge Venkatesh’s achievement. "Congratulations to the World Junior Champion Pranav Venkatesh. He has been in great form lately. Our @WacaChess mentee. He is very meticulous in his work and constantly analyzes his own games, comes back with suggestions, and takes feedback. You join a very prestigious line of World Junior Champions!" -- Anand wrote on X. (formerly Twitter)
Prague Masters championship 2025
Arvindh Chidambaram wins the Prague Masters championship in Feb 2025. He was unbeaten and won ahead of more fancied names such as Anish Giri, Wei Yi, Vincent Keymer and R. Praggnanandhaa. What is even more remarkable is that he beat the first three and drew with the last one.
Agzamov Memorial tournament 2025
Nihal Sarin won the Agzamov Memorial tournament in Tashkent, Uzbekistan in Mar 2025. Nihal finished the tournament unbeaten, recording six wins and four draws in the ten rounds.
Nicosia Grand Prix 2025
Anna Muzychuk emerged as the lucky winner of the Cyprus Women's Grand Prix, securing victory after a tense 9th and final round in which all games ended in draws. Both Anna Muzychuk and China's young prodigy Zhu Jiner scored solid 2600+ performances and tied for first on 6/9, leaving behind Harika Dronavalli, Aleksandra Goryachkina and Mariya Muzychuk at a one-point distance in the final standings. Harika came 3rd in tie-break.
Regarding her chances to win one of the two Candidates spots, Anna was quite down-to-earth: "Obviously a win in this tournament increases my chances to qualify, but everything is still very unclear. I will try to prepare well for Austria and just hope that things will go well for me."