Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh on Tuesday said he is focussed on taking it one game at a time and is hoping for “many more good days” as he aims to upstage Ding Liren and become the youngest world champion in chess. Playing with black pieces, the 18-year-old Gukesh bounced back to draw the second game against defending champion Liren of China in the World Chess Championship here. This was a day after Liren (black) exploited Gukesh’s blunder in a French Defense match to clinch the first game. “Today was a good day, and hopefully, we will have many more good days coming,” Gukesh said at the end of the second game.
Gukesh has thanked his second, Grzegorz Gajewski, for the manner in which he has been helping the Indian in his endeavour.
“‘Gaju’ (Gajewski) is not only helping me with chess, but also helping me get ready mentally and to keep my well-being. He said a few things which helped me recover quickly,” Gukesh said of the Polish GM, who was beaten by the Indian when they met at the World Rapid Championships in 2019.
Gukesh said he is privileged to be able to represent his country in the World Championship and the pressure that comes with it.
“There is obviously some pressure for anyone playing in a World Championship; there is a lot of pressure. But I also see it as a privilege that I can represent so many people and my country.
“And yeah, it would be a very nice achievement, obviously, if I win the match. I am just focusing on one game at a time. Hopefully, things go my way,” he said after the second round.
It was a good recovery by Gukesh as Liren could do very little with his white pieces and had to share the point.
“Draw with black in the world championship match is always nice and it’s too early, we still have a long match,” the Chennai-based GM said in the post-game press conference.
“I think after I was surprised in the opening, I reacted pretty decently, and I didn’t give him any chances. It was a solid game with black, which is nice.
“I have seen a lot of world championship matches with players playing inside a cube, luckily, I am playing and not watching it.
“I think I will try to play a good game, because after all the only thing you can do to win is to play a good game,” he added.
Liren was quite pragmatic after the game.
“The basic idea is to play carefully and I am completely fine with a draw, maybe I had some chances I don’t know,” Liren said.
It may be recalled that the Chinese had won the last world championship match against Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia after coming back from behind as many as three times.
The 32-year-old said he was happy with how he performed in the second round.
“In the first game I played something new in the opening and of course it requires a lot of memory. Today I also played not a common move (for me) 1.e4 and I prepared a lot,” Liren said.
“I think it will be a big fight tomorrow. He’s a point down and he will have the white pieces, so I am ready for a fight,” he added.
Asked how he unwinds to ensure past results don’t affect his coming games, Liren said, “First, I’ll check the games and then maybe rest. Yesterday, I received a lot of messages because I won the first game, and then it was already time to sleep.” After the teenaged Indian’s loss in the first game, Viswanathan Anand, who played a role in bringing Gajewski and Gukesh together, recalled his defeat to Veselin Topalov in the first game of the 2010 world championship match.
“He lost yesterday. It wasn’t as straight forward (as my loss to Topalov in Game 1 in 2010), it’s not a question of him forgetting just one move, it was a struggle and he had even some chances, so his approach wasn’t wrong, but he kind of blew it in the end,” Anand observed.
If Gukesh prevails in the end, he would break the current record set by the legendary Garry Kasparov, who became world champion at the age of 22 in 1985.
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