EXCLUSIVE | ‘That’s Pretty Much All I Need to Enjoy the Moment’: D Gukesh After Candidates Triumph

Dommaraju Gukesh made history, becoming the youngest-ever challenger for the chess world title, by winning the Candidate’s tournament in Toronto, Canada, on Sunday.  He is now also the second Indian after the legendary Viswanathan Anand to win the Candidates tournament and will now be facing the reigning world title holder Ding Liren of China later this year.

After the win, Gukesh spoke exclusively to CNN-News18 and said it was a stressful three weeks and is happy that it ended well.

“I feel so relieved and so happy. You know, the last day was, I mean, stressful throughout the tournament. But the last day was especially stressful, and I’m so, so glad things went my way. Yeah, it has been a wonderful three weeks, and it all ended well,” Gukesh told CNN-News18.

Amazing That Gukesh is Going to Play for World Title Before He’s Ready to Vote: Viswanathan Anand

Gukesh accumulated nine out of a possible 14 points here after drawing his final-round game against American Hikaru Nakamura. Needing at least a draw, Gukesh gave nothing away to Nakamura, a clear signal that the teenager is ready for the big stage and is going to be the next biggest star in the chess world. Gukesh said he now wants to enjoy the moment.

“I’m not really someone who celebrates a lot, actually. But for me, celebration would mean, you know, going back home, spending time with family and friends. That’s. Yeah, that’s pretty much all I need to enjoy the moment,” said the 17-year-old.

Candidates Chess: Gukesh Becomes Youngest Winner, Will Challenge for World Title

Gukesh’s now awaits the biggest challenge of his young career – a world title clash with Liren and talking about his opponent, the Indian is not overawed by the statute of his opponent and believes it will come down ‘who will be in a better shape in the match’.

“After I won the tournament, I haven’t had too much time to think about the match. But obviously, I’m super excited to be playing for the world title. And Ding is a strong player. He has many achievements to his name. But once we go there, it will be fully competitive, and only the man who is in the best shape in the match will matter. Obviously, I will try to give my absolute best. I will prepare well, and I will try to go there with full motivation and full energy. Yeah, let’s see how it goes,” he said.

Gukesh also touched upon how he practices the game and his love for chess. “Chess is something that I love, and it’s not something that I’m forced to do. I just want to spend time with chess. I want to play chess. And, yeah, every day is. I mean, if I don’t have any other commitments or if I have a normal day, I. Most of the time, I spend on chess and things related to chess, like some physical exercise and some mental training, but, yeah, most of the time, I spend on chests, and I love what I’m doing. Yeah, I’m looking forward to continuing the same way,” said Gukesh.

But the Chennai-born, who is also the third youngest Grandmaster, said that he needs to improve his game further and it is a never-ending journey.

“I still have a lot of things to improve. I have been constantly improving, and there’s still a long, long way to go. It’s a never-ending journey. I have become more universal than I was before, and I have more emotional control now than before. I guess that came with more maturity. But obviously, I can only improve on all these things from here. So, yeah, I’ll try to improve every single thing about myself and try to reach my full potential,” he signed off.

Disclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.