Every move you make: Viswanathan Anand decodes Gukesh vs. Ding Liren epic chess showdown
Viswanathan Anand explains in “simple terms” the mind games involved in choosing openings for a championship finale.
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I called up Anand who is heading to the airport to fly to Singapore where he will be a commentator for the FIDE World Chess Championship match between incumbent Ding Liren of China and India’s own Gukesh D, starting November 25. I’d asked him about whether the players would pick something offbeat just to surprise the opponent.
Ding’s recent mental health problems and a nine-month break from the game have taken up a lot of media attention. But as a chess fan, I was interested in getting Anand’s insights into the openings and match strategy that both Ding and Gukesh would employ.
WHY SECONDS MATTER
And in this mix are the seconds, or trainers, who help their principal. The preparation for a world championship match typically starts about half a year before. The seconds spend weeks going through all the opponent’s games, trying to find minute weaknesses. They then try to lock the optimal openings for their player. While the seconds check the variations in each opening or “lines” as they are called, they have to rely on powerful computers linked to vast cloud-based databases that pretty much hold every recorded game for the last 500 years or so.
Gukesh’s chief second is Grandmaster Grzegorz Gajewski, a former Polish champion who had helped Anand in his match against Magnus Carlsen back
