What Vishy Anand told Gukesh that helped him turn loss into triumph

Freshly crowned World Chess Champion D Gukesh has talked about the subtle and 'prophetic' words of encouragement he received from the legendary Viswanathan Anand during his match against Ding Liren in Singapore.

Gukesh was crestfallen after losing the first game of the match. "No matter how much you prepare, when you come here as an 18-year-old, and you lose the first game, and the way I did, it was humiliating," he said during the media interaction after beating his Chinese opponent in Game 14 to win the match 7.5-6.5 on Thursday.

"After the game (Game 1) there was a nice moment. I was walking back to the hotel, and Vishy sir was also in the lift. He told me, 'I had 11 games, you have 13 games'. That is all he said. It was a nice reminder that it is just one game and it is a long match," Gukesh said.

The reference that Vishy made and what Gukesh did not need help understanding, was the former's 2010 World Chess Championship match against Bulgarian Veselin Topalov.

Then, the title clash involved 12 classical games as opposed to 14 now. Just like Gukesh, Anand had lost his first game. He had 11 more games to bounce back. Anand defeated Topalov in Game 2 to level the tie. Gukesh defeated Ding in Game 3 to level the tie. And just like Gukesh, Anand also won the final game of the match to seal his victory (6.5-5.5). That was the fourth of Anand's five world titles.

"It's a proud moment for chess, a proud moment for India, a proud moment for WACA, and for me, a very personal moment of pride," Anand posted on the social media platform X after Gukesh's win. "Ding played a very exciting match and showed the champion he is," he added.