GM Siddharth Jagadeesh says ‘friend’ Gukesh’s World Championship win will have huge impact on Singapore chess
GM Siddharth Jagadeesh says ‘friend’ Gukesh’s World Championship win will have huge impact on Singapore chess
Singapore’s youngest and latest Grandmaster, Siddharth Jagadeesh, on Thursday, recalled the time when D. Gukesh offered him a “mercy draw” in an u-9 Asian Championship.
“So, the first place in the tournament wins the Candidate Master title. And a draw secured him the first place. [Even though] he was in a better or winning position, he just offered me a draw and I accepted it. But, I’m sure he could’ve won if he wanted to,” he said after the conclusion of the Chennai Open International Grandmasters chess tournament here.
Siddharth made sure he watched the recent World Championship match live as much as he could despite playing at the Singapore International Open then. It was because he thought the match was “more interesting” since it had Gukesh, whom he’d known “for a long time.”
“So, my game would finish at maybe 7 p.m. or so (Singapore time). And they would be maybe 2-3 hours into their game. And then, I would go and watch.”
“I think you can understand the complexity of the game if you’re there. Because you are fully engrossed in the atmosphere. But if you’re watching at home, you’re doing some other things on the side. You don’t understand what they’re thinking. You just see the engine evaluation and you think it’s very easy,” he added.
On his takeaway from watching the World Championship match, he said: “A lot of new ideas in some openings. When two players of their calibre play, definitely there will always be something very instructive.”
Speaking of the impact that the hosting of the World Championship match is bound to have on Chess in Singapore, he said: “In Singapore, we don’t have much of a chess culture. We only have five Grandmasters. And the next youngest is 21 years old.
“So, to hold it (the match) in Singapore where so many kids watched, I think it will definitely cause a chess boom.”
As a fellow 18-year-old, he spoke about how inspiring Gukesh’s journey has been.
“He was only born a few months before me. So, it’s very inspiring to see how much he has accomplished in this time. I think he’s a very hard worker for sure.“
“I think Gukesh is psychologically very strong. Even in the candidates, when he qualified for the World Championship, he lost a painful game but came back stronger. Here (World Championship match), he lost the first game and he was able to come back in the third game. He lost a game later on but was able to win the last game again,” he said.
He highlighted a quality that sets apart the current generation of successful young Indian chess players. “I think they’re very hardworking, very dedicated to the game. For a lot of them, chess is all that they do. They dedicate their whole life to chess, which is not so common in Singapore or Europe.”
Siddharth said that his aim now is to break into the top 100 (currently ranked 508) in the World rankings and get to about 2630 or 2640 (Current Elo – 2516) in the next 2-3 years.
