Gukesh could be king of World soon

Indian hearts swelled with pride with the menrsquos and womenrsquos chess teamsrsquo grand show at the Chess Olympiad on Sunday night in Budapest But did the result and powerpacked performance of D Gukesh send shockwaves across the borderQuite possible considering that the World Championship match between Gukesh and defending champion Ding Liren of China is less than two months away Gukesh won an individual gold incidentally his second after winning the first one at the Chennai Olympiad a couple of years backGukesh 18 whom many feel is a trifle young and lacks the experience to fight for a World Championship title match has quite clearly fired the first salvo even before the first game of the World Championship with a jawdropping performance scoring 910 points and maintaining a clean slate Amongst the frequent visitors who thronged his board during the games was Ding Liren Interestingly FIDE the world chess body released a reel of top players which included the likes of former world champions Magnus Carlsen and Ruslan Ponamariov along with Levon Aronian and other top players having a sneakpeak at Gukeshrsquos games in the midst of their games only to leave with stunned expressions after witnessing his incredible moves which almost appeared magicalTopquality chessAlso ReadThis academy will empower young sportspersons Ajinkya Rahane on running his new academy in BandraAn aweinspiring Elo 3056 rating performance the highest in the entire Olympiad speaks volumes of the strength and quality of chess he exhibited At the start of the event Gukesh enjoyed a Elo 2764 rating and garnered 30 points during the last 12 days unheard of at this platform considering the formidable opposition After crossing the 2750 Elo barrier the players literally inch across gaining points in just single digits The other highlight of Gukeshrsquos play was the confidence with which he played never in trouble during all the 10 games that he playedReady for the biggest stageDefeating Fabiano Caruana the third highest rated player in the world in the crucial penultimate round was also a signal of sorts that Gukesh is ready for the biggest stage of his life Caruana has also been a World Championship challenger to Carlsen and in general enjoys the reputation of the player most difficult to beat The victory against Chinese Wei Yi was nothing short of spectacular as was the case with the victory over Maghsoodloo of Iran all players rated above Elo 2700Gukesh had taken a big risk in playing the Olympiad just a couple of months before the World Championship He admitted that at times he had to maintain a balance on how much of his World Championship preparation he could reveal during the selection of Openings to be played at the Olympiad This is a dilemma faced by all the world champions and challengers a few months before the title bout Gukesh however made it clear that during the Olympiad he was singlemindedly focussing on garnering the gold for India after narrowly missing it last time around He also felt that the Olympiad has proved to be a good outing just before the World ChampionshipDing Liren after winning the World Championship has not been in good nick and failed to impress in any tournament after a long layoff last year At this Olympiad however he appeared to have lifted his game a bit and interestingly had commented that Gukesh was better equipped to fight for the World title One wonders whether Gukesh has already delivered a psychological blow