Gukesh's Evolution: Key Games and Lessons from Age 8

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01:24 Gukesh - Alimbetov, 2014
09:42 Gukesh - Deng Yu Dong, 2014
19:51 Gukesh - Tugstumur, 2014 (Instructive Loss)
29:01 Mcdonnell - Labourdonnais 1834 (Chess Classic)
We are starting a new series tracking the development and evolution of Dommaraju Gukesh, the Indian chess prodigy. Gukesh recently won the Candidates Tournament, and he may become the world champion by the end of this year. My goal in this series is to showcase his chess style and document his progress over the years. We will examine some of his most instructive wins and losses, highlighting how he addressed his weaknesses and learned from his mistakes.
Today's episode looks at three games played by 8-year-old Gukesh, whose ELO was 1661 at the time. Even at that young age, Gukesh demonstrated a solid understanding of piece activity and effectively utilized every piece in his games. He showed great intuition for improving poorly placed pieces and generally avoided piece sacrifices when attacking the enemy king, including the Greek Gift sacrifice. Gukesh preferred to attack without sacrificing material. He had a liking for King's Indian structures but sometimes overused them without considering his opponent's setup. His instructive loss in this video illustrates this tendency. Despite occasionally finding himself in difficult positions, he already displayed strong fighting instincts at this age.
Please let me know what you think about this video by leaving a comment. What are your observations about 8-year-old Gukesh?

[@brainfellow5140]

Fantastic case-study series, so much good material to learn from here in both his wins and losses. He's an amazing player! Thank you Dr. Can! Side question: Sir, do you have a course or video reference (or would you consider making one in the future) on "move order"? Most of my issues in puzzles and games come from seeing the right candidate moves, but making them in the wrong order. Thanks again and take care!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Super happy to hear your feedback, thank you so much! ☺️ I will probably make a video about the move order in calculation. Thanks for mentioning it!

[@EliDollinger]

Gukesh demonstrated a lot of control and precision. His errors in games 1 and 3 are probably an example of the Einstellung Effect. I'm guessing in 2014 he didn't have a large number of mental templates yet. Wikipedia says he started playing chess in 2013. I'm very interested in seeing his evolution as a player.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Well said, thank you! It is an incredible progress still within one year. Einstellung Effect is an interesting explanation too! Applying established mental sets to positions where it does not fit!

[@timmarshall4881]

Losses are instructive and how he develops over the loss. Love and peace. Tim

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you Tim 🙏

[@PDSeverus]

Thanks, I like this series on the evolution of player and playing style .

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you 🙏

[@paulmcmillen5925]

Thanks for showing that Botinik(?) defense for black. I'll be waiting to see how Gukesh breaks it.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you! It is the Botvinnik System!

[@user-ot8bb3ng7o]

I enjoy understanding the styles of chess players how they see and how they think great video 👏👏💯

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Glad you enjoy it! For some reason, this video was not popular at all, but I will keep on going ☺️

[@michaelf8221]

There's no way he knew what the Greek gift sacrifice was. I'm sure his coach told him about it just after that tournament

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks for the feedback! That is believable ☺️

[@yoboy3220]

Hello Can! I am just curious in knowing if you do 1 on 1 coaching? Very much appreciate your content!

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you so much for your kind words! You can contact me on chesscom (canka19) or lichess (cantosh)

[@mezozeko5662]

First from egyptian fan

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thank you for your support! 🙏

[@eschiedler]

Interesting new series. A lot of times, a player won't play a sacrifice winning tactic because they'll miss the follow up tactic 5 or 7 ply deeper or see a "phantom" resource for the opponent. Also, for the series, a lot of chess coaches go in-depth for an entire game, and that makes the video way too long.

[@Dr.CansClinic]

Thanks for the feedback! Do you think this video was way too long? ☺️