World Chess Championship 2024

On the last day of April 2023, alone at Toronto, I was following the rapid tiebreaker games in the World Chess Championship match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren. The classical games had ended in a tie. The first three of the rapid games had also been drawn. In this fourth game, after more than 40 moves, the players were down to queen, rook and bishop. Ding had an extra pawn, and more importantly, two passed pawns on the queenside. However, Nepo was checking his somewhat exposed king and after a series of checks, it looked like Ding would again play Kg8 allowing Qe5 with a check leading to a repetition of moves with another draw. In fact, many had already decided that the fourth draw in a row was a foregone conclusion and started looking forwards to the next round of tiebreakers. However, with little more than a minute on the clock, Ding calculated that he could play a horrible looking self pin with 46 .. Rg6!, a confident rejection of the path towards a draw and he went on to ultimately win the game and the crown.

This self pin would turn out to the iconic moment of the championship, establishing Ding as a brave new champion. It also showed how even in a long championship match between two players, isolated moments could be so decisive. Since then Ding's fortunes have fallen and so has his self confidence. Before the start of the 2024 World Chess Championship, he was considered widely to be an easy target for the young challenger from India, Gukesh. Gukesh had had a remarkable journey to become the challenger and at just 18 years was poised to be the youngest world champion ever if he won.

There is a huge difference in reviewing chess games that have been played and watching along as they are played. As they are being played, thinking for multiple minutes at a time along with the players, you are reminded constantly of what a web of complications lie at each move. Of how many strategies and moves are considered at each turn before the played move is chosen. The contortions necessary to avoid any prepared opening lines, the level of accuracy that is maintained, the tiny advantages that gets one excited, the precise defence that nullifies those.

In the broad political climate, things have not been very good between India and China and with a more popular sport like cricket, all this animosity would have spilled over into the match. In chess, there was little, if any of that. Although representing their countries, they were chess players rather than Indian and Chinese. Ding has this charming disarming innocence and humility that makes one root for him. The best illustration of this was when he was asked at the press conference if he knew the meme on "Ding Chilling" and he smiled shyly and asked 'What is the meaning of chilling?'.

Gukesh, playing on the top stage at 18, showed an unexpected and tremendous maturity for his age. Repeatedly, he stuck to his strategy of playing each position on its merit. He maintained that his principal objective always is to play chess. Where Ding seemed to be a little pessimistic about evaluating his positions, Gukesh seemed always a little more optimistic. We were to repeatedly see a situation where Ding would offer a draw by repetition in a position where he was a little better, but Gukesh would reject it to continue playing.

Ultimately, Ding's strategy of steering games to a draw, even when he had the better position, turned out to be his undoing. The score was level after 13 games and in the 14th game, Ding steered the game into a pawn down ending which should be drawn even though he could be made to work for it. Endgames can be very tricky and here he could hold the draw without exchanging any pieces. Exchanging one set of pieces - the rooks alone or the bishops alone was also fine. However, if both sets of pieces were exchanged and the kings were alone on the board, defending against the extra pawn was going to be tricky. The decisive mistake was when Ding offered exchange of rooks. But the mistake that set it up happened a little before that when, fleeing from the rook, Ding's bishop huddled into the corner on a8.

Once in the corner, the bishop can only operate only on one diagnonal and therefore cannot escape an exchange. So when Ding offered exchange of the rooks after a couple of moves, Gukesh realized that he could exchange the rooks and then force the exchange of the bishops. The pawn up endgame with only kings on board was a win for him. The body language of the contestants when they noticed the error and the upcoming win was incredible to watch. Gukesh couldnt believe that the crown was so suddenly his now while Ding was absolutely crestfallen.

Gukesh's strategy was perhaps reflective of the philosophy of living in the moment weighing only immediate present and not thinking of long term consequences. And it turned out to his advantage although in reality there was very little separating the two players in this championship. Another nice and somewhat unusual thing about this championship was how gracious both players were, respecting and praising each other. Hopefully this attitude becomes the norm in the future!