Gukesh scores double win against Anand
Author: Maria Fragaki
In his SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz debut, the 17-year-old Indian chess prodigy Gukesh Dommaraju came 5th, winning his mentor and former World Champion GM Viswanathan Anand in rapid and blitz, and gaining a total of 51 rating points, the most among all the participants.
Gukesh is undoubtably one of the greatest players of his generation, and among the elite world players. He is currently 13th in the World with a 2744 rating, and India’s No.2, behind the former five-time World Champion Viswanathan Anand.
Anand is Gukesh’s trainer, mentor, idol and role model, but this didn’t seem intimidating enough for the young GM to beat him twice, both in rapid and blitz format at the 2023 SuperUnited Rapid & Blitz in Zagrab, Croatia.
Before they face each other, Anand said: “I’m very, very proud of what he’s doing. Just a couple of years back, he was starting his race. This year he’s been very consistent. He had a very good result in WR, good recovery in Wijk, and a very good performance in Norway, steadily making his way up. It’s funny to talk about young talent: he’s just number 13 in the world, so there he is. [...] ‘For the last couple of years, he’s been one of the students in my chess academy, and it’ll be funny to play him. I’m not quite sure how to place it. I just figure I’ll go there and look at the pieces and not try to make a special game out of it, just try to play good chess.’
Fearlessly confronting his legendary mentor in their first ever rapid clash, Gukesh demonstrated his creative prowess by seizing control of a crucial position in the center and transforming it into a menacing assault on the opponent’s king to win the game.
After his win, Gukesh humbly explained some key points of their game, and said that it was “an important win”!
In their blitz encounter, Gukesh achieved another historic win against the “Tiger of Madras”. Their second game started with the Caro-Kann Defence with Anand blundering on move 31. fxe4?? and Gukesh finding the killing move 31...Ng4!! to finish the game almost immediately.
