Gukesh is looking like a fish out of water at times

In every sport, there is curiosity about who the best player is and chess is no exception.

- Pravin Thipsay

The individual World Championship matches in chess date back to the 18th century, though the official World Championship cycles began only in 1886. The format of the Championship has changed several times in the pursuit of determining who the strongest player is.

The match format makes the 'home preparation' a very important factor and we can say that very often the outcome of matches is decided by preparation, rather than the playing strength of the players. Most of the championship matches since Garry Kasparov vs Vladimir Kramnik in 2000 have been based on opening preparation.

In 2008, Viswanathan Anand brought in the 'attack element' in the Championships by playing sharper games. However, the success in these matches mainly revolved around better preparation.

Magnus Carlsen arrived on the scene and changed things a bit. Carlsen has a great combination of knowledge, imagination, strategy and tactics. He has a style of trying to win every game in every tournament. As a result, the championships since 2013 saw lesser dependence on opening preparation.

In the 2023 match, we saw a lot of one-sided games. Either Ian Nepomniachtchi crushed Ding Liren using his strategic skills or Ding tactically outplayed Nepomniachtchi.