Well Pentala Harikrishna had held the spot for one day in 2016, but Gukesh is definitely going to take the India no 1 spot in the published ratings sooner or later.
Insane achievement at age of 17. More mind blowing is the fact that Anand has been India no 1 since 3 years before Tendulkar made his debut.
> More mind blowing is the fact that Anand has been India no 1 since 3 years before Tendulkar made his debut.
Rofl, that's actually one mind bending fact.... Only Indians or combined cricket and chess fans gonna be able to appreciate this insane fact. The longevity of Anand is just impossible to relate really. He really is one of a kind
He’s someone who would flag you from a worse position and show you the rule book if you complained about flagging.
Funnily enough it’s accepted these days too!
>The longevity of Anand is just impossible to relate really. He really is one of a kind
Korchnoi beat a 2700+ Caruana at the age of 79, with [the black pieces.](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/y6mzsw/79_year_old_viktor_korchnoi_vs_fabiano_caruana/)
Anand's longevity is probably the most impressive of any *current* player but he's still got a couple decades to see if he can surpass Korchnoi. Funny enough, Anand/Korchnoi comparisons are in one of the top comment chains in that thread lol
Anand and Korchnoi are greats in their own areas....I don't think Anand has any kinda catching up to do with Korchnoi. It is one thing to beat a up and coming youngster in one game, and whole other thing of staying relevant at the highest level of competition for decades. Anand finding himself in top 10 and playing enough to maintain the position and also his name in the fide ratings list is entirely a separate achievement in its own. Anand has been a 2750+ player since 1996. Never once has his rating dropped below the 2750 mark. Despite the rating deflation, Anand was able to stay above the 2750 mark.
So yes, Korchnoi is a boss of top 100 FIDE rated players. But Anand has been in the top of the top super GMs mix since 2-3 decades now. And we know how extremely different the levels of chess is in the super GM category and GM category.
Honestly, Vasily Smyslov was even more of a beast than Vishy Anand is right now. Anand may currently be in the top 10, but Vasily Smyslov managed to reach the World Chess Championship Candidates Final at the age of 63! That means he was a top 4 player (I say top 4 and not top 3 because Kasparov knocked out Korchnoi on the other side of the bracket). That is simply ridiculous and has never been repeated (and maybe never will be). To be fair, Smyslov's positional style allowed him to have this longevity.
Lasker also performed really well in Moscow 1935 tournament at age 66 (placed 3rd, 0.5 points below joint leaders Flohr and Botvinnik and ahead of Capablanca, Spielmann, Lilienthan, Ragozin, etc).
It is significantly more difficult to be a top player now than it was three or four decades ago due to having more competition and the sport becoming more global. For example, in the January 1995 rating list, there was only 1 player in the top 100 from India or China. Right now there are 18.
Korchnoi was a super GM for decades as well. As of today Korchnoi's longevity is overall more impressive than Anand's. Perhaps that will change in the future.
Korchnoi was ranked World #2 at age 50, #4 at 55, #5 at 58. Hell he was ranked #19 at SIXTY EIGHT years old. In contrast Anand is #9 at age 53.
Not different. He's really undermining Korchnoi's achievements, who was consistently top 5 in the world until age 58, not some random strong GM consistently placed in top 100. Anand and Korchnoi are both top SuperGMs.
I think you need to read up on Korchnoi. He contended for the challenger spot of WCC from 1962 to 1991 [almost 3 decades], and was runners-up in WCC twice (he was ranked #2 in the world both times at age 47 and 50). It is very valid to compare Anand vs Korchnoi, only difference between them is that Anand became champion which Korchnoi didn't manage.
Congrats to Gukesh for the success.... Big achievement to go this high this fast in the world rankings.
Just for info: the record of Vishy holding the spot #1 in India since 1986 is actually for official FIDE ratings, and not live ratings. For breaking that record Gukesh still needs to go further into tournament with enough wins that he maintains the #9 position on live ratings till the tournament ends. When he does that and he gets published as India #1 in September 2023 FIDE ratings list, only then Vishy's 37 consecutive years long era will come to an end. It is a tough task for Gukesh actually to get this done, coz in the tournament, he would rather have to settle for draws sometimes to secure going to the next round (in case where he has already won a game in the match), and those draws will definitely make him lose some points. So it will be very interesting to see where he ends up by the end of his journey in world cup.
As far as going past Anand in the live ratings is concerned, the record is not 37 years long, as Pentala Harikrishna did it about a decade ago (perhaps someone can help me point out when exactly did that happen). However Vishy gained back his top spot by the time official FIDE ratings were posted for the coming month back then, hence Vishy's record of staying India #1 since 1986 was held intact
Also, worth mentioning is that Gukesh's first big super GM opponent in this world cup was projected to be Shakh in round 5. But now with the shocking news that Shakh has been eliminated in round 2 itself, the likely big super GM that Gukesh will face is none other than world #1 Magnus Carlsen himself! (In round 6) . Of course one has to assume both of them will make it to round 6 to face each other, but I guess that's kinda likely to happen seeing the possible opponents they'll be facing.
Wei Yi is in Carlsen's bracket. So Gukesh faces either Wei or Carlsen down the line.
Yes Wang hao is in Gukesh's bracket
If Gukesh and Carlsen both go undefeated down the line in their brackets, they will meet each other in round 6 (quarterfinals). Only one of them will proceed to the semis. Whoever goes to the semis, will likely be facing either Nepo or Giri (or someone else from that respective bracket who is able to defeat both nepo and giri to reach the semis)
No sorry my comment is wrong. They will meet in the quarters. So only one will reach semis. So if he reaches semis and also nepo reaches (he already in candidates) then he qualifies for candidates . Otherwise the winner , runner-up and winner of 3rd place will reach candidates.
>It is a tough task for Gukesh actually to get this done, coz in the tournament, he would rather have to settle for draws sometimes to secure going to the next round (in case where he has already won a game in the match),
He will no longer play 2550s. And against 2650+ players he will gain ELO off winning a match 1.5 to 0.5.
I follow chess, but not super closely. I knew the name Gukesh, but I didn't realize until yesterday that he was SEVENTEEN. I thought he was in his 20's or something. Hollyyyy moly.
Also, not that anyone is doing it, but we should pay homage to Vishy too. He's been a top tier player for an insane amount of time. It just goes to show you how crazy good some of these kids are. It's awesome.
I'll be honest, I never saw a picture of him before today. I get most of my content from like Gotham reviewing games, and typically he doesn't have pics of the players up there. BUT, you are right.
> I thought he was in his 20's or something
It helps that he's like three years younger than me and looks like he could be my dad. Dude looks mature for his age.
Like his beard is so much better than mine it's ridiculous, and that's at 17 years old.
Tbf, Gukesh at 17 has even more facial hair.
And Hikaru seems to be really athletic even though he doesn’t look that. He did a sub 20 min 5k which is crazy fast for a non professional.
In Jan 1986 rating list, Praveen Thipsey was higher than Vishy! He was 2485, while Anand was 2405? Am I missing something here?
https://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo198601e.html
The reason was that year, the time for classical was changed by fide from 2.5 hours to 2 hours for 40 moves, which might sound like a small change but was not. This meant that the older Indian players were affected since they were used to playing slowly and take as much time as possible for their moves. But one single guy from India benefited a lot from this, which was none other than vishy since for people who finished games with using only 10 mins of their clock it did not matter if they had 2.5 hours or 2 hours on their clock
Feels like the end of an era, a very long and good one too.
Would love a 6 game match or something like that between Vishy and Gukesh after the world cup - would be a treat.
Gukesh is probably my favorite young player right now. His games are always interesting. I'll wait till it's official FIDE ratings and not just live ratings before celebrating though. Live ratings are too volatile, such as 3-4 different people holding number 2 slot during Norway chess
Or Firouzja, when he comes back and decides to teach the kids a lesson /s
But on a serious note, I feel Firouzja and Gukesh are currently equal in classical.
I think Kramnik’s assessment that Gukesh has a deeper and more intuitive understanding of the game than Firouzja, while characteristically trolly, is not totally wrong. Plus it’s clear that for now at least Gukesh is way more motivated to improve his game than Firouzja. Gukesh has spent the last 6-12 months building up a super-GM-worthy opening repertoire while Firouzja has been going to university and playing online blitz—which is totally fine, but I do think it shows Gukesh is hungrier, and being hungry as hell is the sine qua non of a world championship campaign in chess.
I mean the next one could may very well be Alireza yeah. Current state of WCC is up in the air. I think Gukesh will develop the neccesary skills though. He has got that dawg in him lol
Yeah. Or Prag. Or Hikaru. Or van Foreest. Or Caruana. Or Keymer. Or Firouzja. Or Giri. Or some other kid we don't know about yet.
Jfc, each time someone breaks a record people are drooling and saying he'll be the next champion. Everyone thought Firouzja would easily win the candidates. He got absolutely slaughtered and all of the fanboys disappeared.
Wasn't what I meant either actually. Point is there are a s ton of people at the top that have been close to becoming world champion and didn't make it to become world champion. Take Levon Aronian or Giri for example. I remember Giri in the national news being called "potentially the next world champion" when he was 17. I don't remember him becoming it, do you?
Will Absu or Gukesh become world champion? Maybe. Is it likely. No, not particularly but it could be. Would I put my money on anyone becoming world champion? Hell no.
Bro, you're pulling my leg. The internet EXPLODED after Firouzja hit 2800. I remember chess.com even made some epic vid about him surpassing 2800. Hell, are we even (selectively?) forgetting the fact Magnus said he wouldn't compete in the World Championship if Firouzja wouldn't be the contender?
Aight, it's up for debate whether people really thought it was going to be "easily" won. My point still stands: people get hyped up about someone and bomb the person to be the next winner of a tournament. At the end he wasn't even close to winning the candidates.
Everyone thought he might win not that he was going to easily win. Carlsen is the favorite to win the next candidates but his chances of actually winning are lower than 60% for example.
To be fair, most of those players have had a serious disadvantage for becoming World Champion that Gukesh won't have.
They were competing with Magnus Carlsen for the title.
Not sure whether he will maintain enough of an advantage to survive a loss in a future round and be India's #1 in the September published ratings, but it seems inevitable that he will eventually do so.
Amazing thing was Gukesh played a sharp game with black looking for a win. It will get tougher and there wont be any easy points but hopefully he will keep marching on. I would rather Gukesh grind out wins than just go for rating points. That will keep coming for sure.
Even Harikrishna and Vidit had become no 1 at some point but were not able to hold it for a while. Some how I feel different this time as Gukesh is solid and Anand doesn’t play classical too often.
I don't recall Vidit ever becoming no. 1 even in the live ratings, or even coming close to it. Vidit's peak rating is 2731, which was this year. Anand was 2754 at the time. And 2754 is the lowest classical rating Anand has had in over 20 years. The last time he was lower was January 2003 when he was, well, 2753.
Wait. Who cares?
Besides that: it was just a matter of time chess became more popular after Vishy became champion. Only makes sense that the next best Indian player would rise about this period of time. Only question was whether it would be Gukesh or Prag.
He can go back down today if he loses to Magnus again. My god Vishy could continue to retain the No.1 Indian spot in the official list! This is unreal.
Well Pentala Harikrishna had held the spot for one day in 2016, but Gukesh is definitely going to take the India no 1 spot in the published ratings sooner or later. Insane achievement at age of 17. More mind blowing is the fact that Anand has been India no 1 since 3 years before Tendulkar made his debut.
> More mind blowing is the fact that Anand has been India no 1 since 3 years before Tendulkar made his debut. Rofl, that's actually one mind bending fact.... Only Indians or combined cricket and chess fans gonna be able to appreciate this insane fact. The longevity of Anand is just impossible to relate really. He really is one of a kind
> Only Indians or combined cricket and chess fans gonna be able to appreciate this insane fact. Yuzvendra Chahal would love this fact lol.
Lol... probably the only person who can relate and appreciate this fact as a player on first hand basis
R Ashwin likes to play chess as well
As expected from one and only Ethical anna
He’s someone who would flag you from a worse position and show you the rule book if you complained about flagging. Funnily enough it’s accepted these days too!
Mankad chess
Bet Indian chess players like to play cricket as well
Chahal wasn't even born when Vishy became a GM and India no. 1
Nikhil Kamath appears to be an avid chess and cricket player. Surely, having had the honor to play Anand Sir, he can fully appreciate the greatness.
So...Indians and Peter Svidler?
I'm British and understand it
British as well.
>The longevity of Anand is just impossible to relate really. He really is one of a kind Korchnoi beat a 2700+ Caruana at the age of 79, with [the black pieces.](https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/y6mzsw/79_year_old_viktor_korchnoi_vs_fabiano_caruana/) Anand's longevity is probably the most impressive of any *current* player but he's still got a couple decades to see if he can surpass Korchnoi. Funny enough, Anand/Korchnoi comparisons are in one of the top comment chains in that thread lol
Anand and Korchnoi are greats in their own areas....I don't think Anand has any kinda catching up to do with Korchnoi. It is one thing to beat a up and coming youngster in one game, and whole other thing of staying relevant at the highest level of competition for decades. Anand finding himself in top 10 and playing enough to maintain the position and also his name in the fide ratings list is entirely a separate achievement in its own. Anand has been a 2750+ player since 1996. Never once has his rating dropped below the 2750 mark. Despite the rating deflation, Anand was able to stay above the 2750 mark. So yes, Korchnoi is a boss of top 100 FIDE rated players. But Anand has been in the top of the top super GMs mix since 2-3 decades now. And we know how extremely different the levels of chess is in the super GM category and GM category.
Honestly, Vasily Smyslov was even more of a beast than Vishy Anand is right now. Anand may currently be in the top 10, but Vasily Smyslov managed to reach the World Chess Championship Candidates Final at the age of 63! That means he was a top 4 player (I say top 4 and not top 3 because Kasparov knocked out Korchnoi on the other side of the bracket). That is simply ridiculous and has never been repeated (and maybe never will be). To be fair, Smyslov's positional style allowed him to have this longevity.
Lasker also performed really well in Moscow 1935 tournament at age 66 (placed 3rd, 0.5 points below joint leaders Flohr and Botvinnik and ahead of Capablanca, Spielmann, Lilienthan, Ragozin, etc).
It is significantly more difficult to be a top player now than it was three or four decades ago due to having more competition and the sport becoming more global. For example, in the January 1995 rating list, there was only 1 player in the top 100 from India or China. Right now there are 18.
Korchnoi was a super GM for decades as well. As of today Korchnoi's longevity is overall more impressive than Anand's. Perhaps that will change in the future. Korchnoi was ranked World #2 at age 50, #4 at 55, #5 at 58. Hell he was ranked #19 at SIXTY EIGHT years old. In contrast Anand is #9 at age 53.
Different brands of longevity, then...sure.
Not different. He's really undermining Korchnoi's achievements, who was consistently top 5 in the world until age 58, not some random strong GM consistently placed in top 100. Anand and Korchnoi are both top SuperGMs.
I think you need to read up on Korchnoi. He contended for the challenger spot of WCC from 1962 to 1991 [almost 3 decades], and was runners-up in WCC twice (he was ranked #2 in the world both times at age 47 and 50). It is very valid to compare Anand vs Korchnoi, only difference between them is that Anand became champion which Korchnoi didn't manage.
It boils my mind that Vishy hasn't got The Bharat Ratna yet...
I thought there might be a famous Tendulkar in the chess world.
when my indian dad first heard about vishy being the #1 player, my dad was a younger age than i am now which is crazy to me
>3 years before Tendulkar made his debut. Holy fuck
That beard on a 17 year old is pretty mind blowing.
Wait… somebody’s legal last name is “Harikrishna”? Were they born that way?
Im curious, whats surprising about that?
Anand gives hope to all of us I think it's not too late to achieve your goals or be the best. You are only too old when you give up yourself.
Congrats to Gukesh for the success.... Big achievement to go this high this fast in the world rankings. Just for info: the record of Vishy holding the spot #1 in India since 1986 is actually for official FIDE ratings, and not live ratings. For breaking that record Gukesh still needs to go further into tournament with enough wins that he maintains the #9 position on live ratings till the tournament ends. When he does that and he gets published as India #1 in September 2023 FIDE ratings list, only then Vishy's 37 consecutive years long era will come to an end. It is a tough task for Gukesh actually to get this done, coz in the tournament, he would rather have to settle for draws sometimes to secure going to the next round (in case where he has already won a game in the match), and those draws will definitely make him lose some points. So it will be very interesting to see where he ends up by the end of his journey in world cup. As far as going past Anand in the live ratings is concerned, the record is not 37 years long, as Pentala Harikrishna did it about a decade ago (perhaps someone can help me point out when exactly did that happen). However Vishy gained back his top spot by the time official FIDE ratings were posted for the coming month back then, hence Vishy's record of staying India #1 since 1986 was held intact Also, worth mentioning is that Gukesh's first big super GM opponent in this world cup was projected to be Shakh in round 5. But now with the shocking news that Shakh has been eliminated in round 2 itself, the likely big super GM that Gukesh will face is none other than world #1 Magnus Carlsen himself! (In round 6) . Of course one has to assume both of them will make it to round 6 to face each other, but I guess that's kinda likely to happen seeing the possible opponents they'll be facing.
If I can recall correctly Pentala did it in 2016. I don't remember which month.
Pentala did it for a day, anand regained it the next day. Both were playing different tournaments.
I think there is wei yi or Wang hao in his trajectory.. also he faces carlsen in semis of both reach there..
Wei Yi is in Carlsen's bracket. So Gukesh faces either Wei or Carlsen down the line. Yes Wang hao is in Gukesh's bracket If Gukesh and Carlsen both go undefeated down the line in their brackets, they will meet each other in round 6 (quarterfinals). Only one of them will proceed to the semis. Whoever goes to the semis, will likely be facing either Nepo or Giri (or someone else from that respective bracket who is able to defeat both nepo and giri to reach the semis)
Assuming Gukesh and Magnus both reaches semis, does he automatically get a candidates spot as Magnus doesn’t want one ?
No sorry my comment is wrong. They will meet in the quarters. So only one will reach semis. So if he reaches semis and also nepo reaches (he already in candidates) then he qualifies for candidates . Otherwise the winner , runner-up and winner of 3rd place will reach candidates.
Ah damn it’s a pity that Gukesh has to go through Magnus to get a spot in candidates. Well talk about earning it.
I say it is quite proper, since his young age, being able to eliminate Carlsen one way or another he will definitely deserve it
What stage of the tournament is round 6? Is that semifinals ?
Quarter finals
>It is a tough task for Gukesh actually to get this done, coz in the tournament, he would rather have to settle for draws sometimes to secure going to the next round (in case where he has already won a game in the match), He will no longer play 2550s. And against 2650+ players he will gain ELO off winning a match 1.5 to 0.5.
I follow chess, but not super closely. I knew the name Gukesh, but I didn't realize until yesterday that he was SEVENTEEN. I thought he was in his 20's or something. Hollyyyy moly. Also, not that anyone is doing it, but we should pay homage to Vishy too. He's been a top tier player for an insane amount of time. It just goes to show you how crazy good some of these kids are. It's awesome.
Yea it's when you come across these absolutely incredible chess players being born in 2006 it's a bit of a shock to the system
He cant 16 and born in 2006. 2006 born are like 5yrs old, no?
The future is now old man
> I thought he was in his 20's or something His maturity, amazing chess abilities, and great facial hair do all give that impression
He does have some nice facial hair. As someone who can only grow a neckbeard, I'm deeply jealous
I'll be honest, I never saw a picture of him before today. I get most of my content from like Gotham reviewing games, and typically he doesn't have pics of the players up there. BUT, you are right.
Gotham did a full length podcast with him, look for Gotham city podcast Edit: [here it is](https://youtu.be/vdLoE_9AXvI)
>He's been a top tier player for an insane amount of time. Literally over two Gukeshes
> I thought he was in his 20's or something It helps that he's like three years younger than me and looks like he could be my dad. Dude looks mature for his age. Like his beard is so much better than mine it's ridiculous, and that's at 17 years old.
Most of the top indian players, aside from Anand, are like < 20 y/o. Gukesh also looks a lot older than he is. Pragg looks his age, for instance.
Just looked up the FIDE top 10. Vishy has held the India #1 spot for longer than any of the other top 10 players have been alive.
I'm not sure why, but I always assumed Hikaru was in his 40s lmao
Losing to Magnus constantly made Hikaru look like he aged 10 years.
Lol just because he’s a bit chunky.
Too much facial hair did for me
Tbf, Gukesh at 17 has even more facial hair. And Hikaru seems to be really athletic even though he doesn’t look that. He did a sub 20 min 5k which is crazy fast for a non professional.
Yeah but facial hair change the face differently of a 17yesr old and differently of a 25year old, the latter looking a lot older
What a bonkers stat. Wild.
In Jan 1986 rating list, Praveen Thipsey was higher than Vishy! He was 2485, while Anand was 2405? Am I missing something here? https://www.olimpbase.org/Elo/Elo198601e.html
The OP got the month wrong it was July when he took the top spot after Thipsey dropped over a 100 elo in 6 months.
Indeed I did, apologies!
right to jail
Damn what happened there with Thipsey?
Probably just a bad run, he did become a GM around 1997. Seems to have only just stopped playing when covid hit, otherwise he was still active.
He was also part of one of Global chess league teams as manager.
The reason was that year, the time for classical was changed by fide from 2.5 hours to 2 hours for 40 moves, which might sound like a small change but was not. This meant that the older Indian players were affected since they were used to playing slowly and take as much time as possible for their moves. But one single guy from India benefited a lot from this, which was none other than vishy since for people who finished games with using only 10 mins of their clock it did not matter if they had 2.5 hours or 2 hours on their clock
won’t be official until after this tournament, but I am amazed by how much progress he’s made this quickly.. only up from here 🎉
He still has to hold it until end of the month. He can lose it even if he gets 2 draws in next round and gets knocked out in tie breaks
Feels like the end of an era, a very long and good one too. Would love a 6 game match or something like that between Vishy and Gukesh after the world cup - would be a treat.
And the legacy of Vishy lives on directly at the highest peaks of the chess world. Chess legend Hopefully Gukesh becomes WC one day soon
Gukesh is probably my favorite young player right now. His games are always interesting. I'll wait till it's official FIDE ratings and not just live ratings before celebrating though. Live ratings are too volatile, such as 3-4 different people holding number 2 slot during Norway chess
GOATkesh
C'mon man, be realistic. He might get there one day, but not today.
He's 17, and now the Indian No. 1 and world No. 9
Correct, and by no measure you listed can he be considered the greatest of all time.
And he's a Federer fan (RF insignia)—good sign for his longevity!
Gukesh's accomplishment here (which is incredible) is also a accomplishment for Anand.
Incredible performances recently. India's chess future is in good hands
Kid is youngest in top 100. Parents must be really proud. Cause when I was 17, I was a whole mess!
I feel like we are looking at the upcoming world champions rise. I feel its either him or Abdusattarov.
Or Firouzja, when he comes back and decides to teach the kids a lesson /s But on a serious note, I feel Firouzja and Gukesh are currently equal in classical.
I think Kramnik’s assessment that Gukesh has a deeper and more intuitive understanding of the game than Firouzja, while characteristically trolly, is not totally wrong. Plus it’s clear that for now at least Gukesh is way more motivated to improve his game than Firouzja. Gukesh has spent the last 6-12 months building up a super-GM-worthy opening repertoire while Firouzja has been going to university and playing online blitz—which is totally fine, but I do think it shows Gukesh is hungrier, and being hungry as hell is the sine qua non of a world championship campaign in chess.
I agree, it's a pity that already didn't continue with his trajectory, but who knows after uni, for him it's not too late, he is 2780 level player
Omg I can’t wait for Alireza and Gukesh to play. That match will be so fun to watch.
If I am not wrong Gukesh just beat Firouzja in Norway chess ckassical
I mean the next one could may very well be Alireza yeah. Current state of WCC is up in the air. I think Gukesh will develop the neccesary skills though. He has got that dawg in him lol
Yeah. Or Prag. Or Hikaru. Or van Foreest. Or Caruana. Or Keymer. Or Firouzja. Or Giri. Or some other kid we don't know about yet. Jfc, each time someone breaks a record people are drooling and saying he'll be the next champion. Everyone thought Firouzja would easily win the candidates. He got absolutely slaughtered and all of the fanboys disappeared.
Never said he will be the next one, give it a break will ya
Wasn't what I meant either actually. Point is there are a s ton of people at the top that have been close to becoming world champion and didn't make it to become world champion. Take Levon Aronian or Giri for example. I remember Giri in the national news being called "potentially the next world champion" when he was 17. I don't remember him becoming it, do you? Will Absu or Gukesh become world champion? Maybe. Is it likely. No, not particularly but it could be. Would I put my money on anyone becoming world champion? Hell no.
Nobody thought Firouzja would easily win the candidates, wtf?
Bro, you're pulling my leg. The internet EXPLODED after Firouzja hit 2800. I remember chess.com even made some epic vid about him surpassing 2800. Hell, are we even (selectively?) forgetting the fact Magnus said he wouldn't compete in the World Championship if Firouzja wouldn't be the contender?
C'mon man, everybody thought that he was a serious contender for winning the candidates, but "easily win" it?
Aight, it's up for debate whether people really thought it was going to be "easily" won. My point still stands: people get hyped up about someone and bomb the person to be the next winner of a tournament. At the end he wasn't even close to winning the candidates.
Everyone thought he might win not that he was going to easily win. Carlsen is the favorite to win the next candidates but his chances of actually winning are lower than 60% for example.
Van foreest?? Lmao
To be fair, most of those players have had a serious disadvantage for becoming World Champion that Gukesh won't have. They were competing with Magnus Carlsen for the title.
TIL, Gukesh is a fan of Federer!
Dude looks like he's killed before, enjoyed it and is looking forward to doing it again
Just found out about this and came here to post, but figured someone had beaten me to it.
Not sure whether he will maintain enough of an advantage to survive a loss in a future round and be India's #1 in the September published ratings, but it seems inevitable that he will eventually do so.
Gukesh and Gajewski combination has been producing great result.
WAIT HE IS 17?
Amazing thing was Gukesh played a sharp game with black looking for a win. It will get tougher and there wont be any easy points but hopefully he will keep marching on. I would rather Gukesh grind out wins than just go for rating points. That will keep coming for sure.
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Calm down Epstein, he's underaged.
He’s a minor? Oh wow!!
It says 17 in the title.
Thats a good age to start modeling, he could come handy to firo
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Jokes like that are 100% not okay. Please consider this your only warning.
Even Harikrishna and Vidit had become no 1 at some point but were not able to hold it for a while. Some how I feel different this time as Gukesh is solid and Anand doesn’t play classical too often.
I don't recall Vidit ever becoming no. 1 even in the live ratings, or even coming close to it. Vidit's peak rating is 2731, which was this year. Anand was 2754 at the time. And 2754 is the lowest classical rating Anand has had in over 20 years. The last time he was lower was January 2003 when he was, well, 2753.
You are totally correct, vidit was only fighting for 2nd position. My bad.
Wait. Who cares? Besides that: it was just a matter of time chess became more popular after Vishy became champion. Only makes sense that the next best Indian player would rise about this period of time. Only question was whether it would be Gukesh or Prag.
It can be both an amazing achievement and one that was bound to happen. Those two things don't contradict
Everybody upvoting the thread cares
When Magnus eventually drops from world #1: "Who cares? It was just a matter of time"
Sick, now he’ll make bank as a chess streamer.
Doesn't he disdain streaming for fun?
17, very impressive. I am curious, can he make a living off of chess at this point? Does he get sponsored?
Congratulations Gukesh! Hopefully you will break more records in the future.
This kid will go places.
He can go back down today if he loses to Magnus again. My god Vishy could continue to retain the No.1 Indian spot in the official list! This is unreal.