For his victory within the Candidates, Mr. Gukesh earned 111,000 euros, or almost $120,000.
There have been eight elite gamers within the competitors, together with Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura of the USA, ranked Nos. 2 and three on the earth, and Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, No. 7, who was the runner-up within the final two world title matches. These three gamers tied for second, a half level behind Mr. Gukesh.
In such a small area, anybody can go on a roll and win, however Mr. Gukesh’s victory was nonetheless sudden. Amongst those that doubted his possibilities was Magnus Carlsen, a former world champion. “I can not think about him profitable,” Mr. Carlsen mentioned of Mr. Gukesh in a video recorded with David Howell, an English grandmaster, simply earlier than the competitors started. “He’s not fairly prepared but to make a leap, and I feel it’s extra doubtless that he has a foul occasion than an excellent occasion,” he added.
Certainly, in Spherical 7, Mr. Gukesh misplaced badly to Alireza Firouzja of France. However as an alternative of being a breaking level, that defeat turned out to be a watershed second, as Mr. Gukesh defined throughout a post-tournament information convention.
“If I needed to pinpoint a second the place I actually felt this might be my second was in all probability the seventh sport, after I misplaced to Firouzja,” Mr. Gukesh mentioned. “Clearly, I used to be fairly upset after that. However though I simply had a painful loss, I used to be feeling at my best possible. Perhaps this loss gave me a lot motivation.”
It turned out to be the one loss for Mr. Gukesh, who gained 5 video games and drew the remainder.
As the ultimate seconds of the match ticked away and it grew to become evident that Mr. Gukesh would win, Mr. Carlsen admitted on a name with Chess.com, which was streaming the occasion, that Gukesh was “in all probability a bit stronger than we realized.”
