“Gukesh never changed strategy…”: Chess legend Viswanathan Anand defends Gukesh’s World Chess Championship win

Following his stunning World Chess Championship win in Singapore last year, 18-year-old D Gukesh has emerged as one of India’s most popular and promising Grandmasters. Gukesh's shocking victory against defending champion Ding Liren left the chess world in awe.

The young Indian Grandmaster received widespread praise for his remarkable achievement, but the victory also sparked some criticism, particularly from chess elites like World No 1 Magnus Carlsen and former world champion Vladimir Kramnik, who had also coached Gukesh at one point, stated a report by the Hindustan Times.

Both Carlsen and Kramnik criticised Liren's blunder, describing it as an "amateurish" mistake that abruptly changed the course of the game.

Now, coming in defence of Gukesh, chess legend Viswanathan Anand emphasised that Gukesh had maintained his strategy throughout the match, despite the unexpected turn of events.

Speaking at an event recently, Anand said, “Gukesh never really changed the strategy of pushing. Unexpected things happened during the match, but he was there the next day, pushing again. The rook [blunder] didn’t happen in a vacuum.”

To recall, the final match of the championship reached Game 14, where Liren was pushing for a tie-breaker, but an unexpected blunder on his 55th move led to his resignation, handing the title to Gukesh.

Gukesh himself has addressed the criticism. He acknowledged that while some of the games may not have been of the highest quality, the overall championship was still a significant achievement. Gukesh even took the opportunity to challenge Carlsen to a title match, though the Norwegian is yet to accept, added Hindustan Times.