Congratulations Gukesh! Amazing run, truly living a dream.
Gukesh becomes the youngest chess world champion in history
171–180 of 484 posts
Re: Gukesh becomes the youngest chess world champion in history
#172Well, Ding's prediction was right, it wasn't a short draw. Horrible end to a another pretty disappointing cycle. Ding's game 12 win to tie the match was a positional masterpiece but it ultimately seems fitting that his blunder decided the result. Hope he gets a long break from classical chess and finds his way back to enjoying the game.
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Re: Gukesh becomes the youngest chess world champion in history
#173IMHO Gukesh is a great role model for everyone. Determination and humility shining right through. Though I really like Ding, it just felt that Gukesh was pushing more for a win in all the games and probably deserve this slightly more. Now hope that Magnus comes back into Candidates and we we have a Gukesh vs Magnus match in 2026.
The way that the game has been played and FIDE ignoring his feedback about format makes me think that’s unlikely. Magnus has been fairly critical about the quality of play in many games and that the play has been boring. He’s also talked about the importance of making space for the next generation of talent to have something to strive for because of how dominant he still is.
Re: Gukesh becomes the youngest chess world champion in history
#174That was a absolutely horrible finish to a really exciting championship if you ask me. For anyone who doesn't know, there was a lot of drama because Gukesh was playing amazingly coming into this (eg winning the gold medal on board 1 at the olympiad in crushing style) and Ding had been playing terribly. Then there were 13 games of back and forth with stalwart defending and imaginative computer preparation by both side…
> imaginative computer preparation Are people training AIs to play in the style of the people they're going to play against so they can practice?
Normal, regular chess engines are sometimes called AI. Or at least they were back in 1997. And people have certainly made themed variants of these chess engines, which purport to simulate certain famous chess players.
Right now you can visit https://www.chess.com/play/computer and play a Hikaru-themed chess engine - or a MrBeast-themed chess engine.
I don't know how deep the simulation goes, though - they might all just be the same engine with a different difficulty setting and a different icon.
Re: Gukesh becomes the youngest chess world champion in history
#175Earlier quoted context omitted.
This really misses the key drama of what happened in the last game. Ding had a perfectly safe position where he could try to squeeze Gukesh pretty much endlessly with basically 0 risk. He then, completely inexplicably, went down a forced line which led to the final phase of the game. In this phase the position was drawn with perfect play, but that is completely irrelevant because it is really tough to play. And more…
Is there a metric I can look at in engine evaluations to determine when a situation is "risky" for white or black (e.g., the situation above) even if it looks equal with perfect play? I've always been interested in understanding situations where this is the case (and the opposite, where the engine favours one side but it seems to require a long, hard-to-find sequence of moves. Playing out the top lines helps if equal…
Re: Gukesh becomes the youngest chess world champion in history
#176Must be amazing getting started off in life with such an amazing title out of the gate
You should read about the amount of sacrifices he and his parents did. Chess is very expensive if you want to be a professional and progress to the GM title.
Re: Gukesh becomes the youngest chess world champion in history
#177Earlier quoted context omitted.
This really misses the key drama of what happened in the last game. Ding had a perfectly safe position where he could try to squeeze Gukesh pretty much endlessly with basically 0 risk. He then, completely inexplicably, went down a forced line which led to the final phase of the game. In this phase the position was drawn with perfect play, but that is completely irrelevant because it is really tough to play. And more…
Is there a metric I can look at in engine evaluations to determine when a situation is "risky" for white or black (e.g., the situation above) even if it looks equal with perfect play? I've always been interested in understanding situations where this is the case (and the opposite, where the engine favours one side but it seems to require a long, hard-to-find sequence of moves. Playing out the top lines helps if equal…
The metric is to play the position against Stockfish. If you draw it again and again, it is trivial, otherwise, not so simple :-)
Re: Gukesh becomes the youngest chess world champion in history
#178Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's hard to put it in numbers since high level chess players start very young, it's basically considered impossible to become a titled player learning chess as an adult, with a slight exception for high level players from similar games transferring over. So becoming the youngest champ and becoming the champ in the shortest time are very similar. For comparison Magnus started playing chess at 5 and became WC at 22.
5-22- so 17 years instead of 11. Quite a difference! Can any of that be put down to advances in training tech that wasn't around when Magnus started playing?
In spite of claims to the contrary there is luck in chess. Your form (and your opponents') varies significantly over time, the outcome of competitive opening prep, or even just how well you're sleeping.
The stars really aligned for Gukesh in countless ways, his form and openings hit when and where they needed to, and he was left playing a very out-of-form world champ who wasn't even in the top 20 in the world.
I suspect his record (world champ at 18) will remain intact for many decades yet to come. He attributed much of his success to God, and even as an agnostic - I'm inclined to agree!
Notably he's still nowhere near the strongest player in the world - he's not even the strongest Indian! The world championship in chess can be an odd beast at times.
Re: Gukesh becomes the youngest chess world champion in history
#179Earlier quoted context omitted.
Chess engines should come with another metric bar: "The twitchy-ness" of the position aka the gradient of primary eval metric as you pareto the possible moves from best to worst. The stronger this gradient, the more risky it is to play, and more changes to make a mistake.
This ignores the question how hard it is for a human to find the best (or a "good enough") move. It's easy to find games with 10 "only move" 's in a row where even a beginner could easily have played all if them.
Sure, but it's a start on adding nuance to eval beyond minmax
Re: Gukesh becomes the youngest chess world champion in history
#180Why would you loudly proclaim "youngest world champion in history" in the headline and then never mention his age at any point? I clicked the article specifically looking for the answer to "how old is he" and was thoroughly disappointed. Author is fired from journalism permanently.