GUKESH BECOMES YOUNGEST KING

India Grandmaster's persistence pays off as he forces Liren to make a blunder in the closing moments of Game 14

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

queezing water out of stone. That's one of D Gukesh's signature moves. He loves to suffer but he ensures the opponent suffers with him.

On Thursday, he wanted to suffer. He came in wanting a fistfight and a long match. He came to grind for six hours even in an equal position.

It was. The commentary panel streaming the final had already switched the topic of discussion to Friday's tie-breaks. Then, Ding Liren made one of the worst blunders in the more than 100-year history of the World Championship. Gukesh made wine out of stone to become the 18th and youngest undisputed world champion to spark scenes of pandemonium in the viewing gallery, the fan zone and inside the media centre. A FIDE social media official tripped and fell down but still maintained professional etiquette asking a colleague 'to be ready with the post', journalists were running all over the place and strangers with an Indian persuasion were congratulating and hugging each other.

They had witnessed history and wanted to share their joy with people they had never met before and would likely never meet again. Five minutes before the carnage inside the lobby of the venue, there was calm and serenity. Fans wanted to know the procedure to buy tickets for Friday. People were chilling inside the fan zone playing pick-up chess games. And Dr Rajinikanth, Gukesh's dad, was pacing up and down.

But the questions weren't menacing enough; mainly because Grandmasters have no problems defending this position. After Gukesh's 54...Ke5, the evaluation bar gave the Indian an advantage of -0.15. Or, in other words, nothing (till it goes beyond +0.5 or -0.5, it's a game of cat and mouse and hoping your opponent doesn't find the optimal moves for a long period).