How Gukesh put up almighty endgame grind to carve win for ages

Bengaluru: Ding Liren must be glad he sat this one out. Gukesh banged out only moves with seconds on the clock. Sitting across from him, China’s fiery prodigy Weight Yi went from calm to taut. Wei Yi was fielded in place of the reigning world champion Ding, who plays Gukesh in the World Championship two months from now. A blockbuster preview of the World Championship was denied. Gukesh ended up creating a game for the ages instead. In an almighty endgame grind, the 18-year-old Indian carved out an epic 80-move win out of an objectively drawn position. India is now unbeaten and sole leader with four rounds left in the Olympiad.
Gukesh’s two knights to Black’s lone rook looked a touch menacing as the slow-moving encounter meandered into the endgame. The other three India games in the Open section had ended in draws, the playing hall had emptied out and it wouldn’t have been a terrible result by any stretch for India to split points with China. Gukesh could have repeated moves for a draw. He picked pandemonium instead. It would soon rain fire and sulphur on the Chinese GM.
The Indian glanced furtively at the clock. The computer evaluation suggested the game was still a draw, but Gukesh wasn’t going to settle for it. His knights were now on the e-file, eyeballing Black’s King while also guarding its own King, and his pawn on f6 was on the brink of promotion. Wei Yi was suddenly in perilous only move terrain. He had to spot the only move – Rd1+. He missed it and instead pushed his pawn to h3 on move 71.
Gukesh immediately leaned closer. He was now all over the board. He had smelled blood. Even dangerously low on time, Gukesh’s calculations were sharp, and error-free and he found the subsequent only moves – his knight galloping to g5 putting Black’s h-pawn in the line of fire and fortifying his f6 pawn to hunt Black’s King.
Instead of queening his h-pawn, Wei Yi allowed White’s knight to gobble it up and sent his rook chasing after Black’s a-pawn. Gukesh left muggles baffled with his accuracy as he pushed his knight to g4. His pair of knights were now deadly and dominating. Wei Yi gave White’s King a check with his rook on a3 and to no surprise, Gukesh found the only winning move – Kd2. It had been six hours and Wei Yi who had defended brilliantly for a good stretch
was seemingly out of ideas, resistance, and running on fumes.
White’s knights who looked menacing when the endgame began, were now dripping with death for Black. They were on e5 and h6, pirouetting around Black’s King while also being positioned to fork the rook and end the game if the situation arose. After pushing his knight to h6, Gukesh slapped the clock and threw a glare at Wei Yi. It was over, they both knew it. Wei Yi shook his head in disbelief and disappointment. This monster conversion by Gukesh will perhaps go down in endgame manuals. The only other current player who can put up such endgame tenacity is Mganus Carlsen, who did pop by to have a look at the game when it was heating up.
On move 80, Wei Yi stopped the clock and shook hands with Gukesh. The Indian exhaled, bobbed his head to an imaginary beat, and signed the scoresheets. Captain Srinath Narayanan gave him a quick congratulatory pat on the shoulder and the young Indian did something he rarely does when he’s sitting at the board – break into a smile.
A devastated Wei Yi went about folding his scoresheet many times over until it turned into a tiny square of pain. It brought back images of Gukesh from two years ago. In his Round 10 Olympiad game against Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Gukesh had gone from winning to overreaching, rejecting a draw, blundering, and losing. It put India out of gold medal contention. Two years later, he’s the guy driving India to a possible gold.
Months from now it could be argued that this was the moment the world knew they were looking at a world champion.