Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi sat, spent, and disconsolate. Neither had lost the game, but both had lost their chance. “I’m very, very sorry,” Nepomniachtchi said to his opponent. Fabiano replied, “My fault,” and rose from his chair with a crack of a self-pitying smile. Their drawn final-round game, which yo-yoed between opportunity and blunder, decided the fate of the Candidates tournament and ushered in a historic teen champion.

A 17-year-old from India, D Gukesh, was declared the new World Championship challenger.

It’s fair to say that few saw this coming, at least not so soon. The prodigious teen Super GMs were believed to have the gumption to probe, challenge, and put the older players on the ropes in the Candidates. That one of them would walk away with the whole thing was surely a surprise.

In the larger picture, it signals a shift in the world chess order.  D Gukesh will face Ding Liren in the World Championship later this year. The Chinese reigning world champion hasn’t quite been himself over the board since his title win. He has been in worrying form and he hinted at having had health setbacks too. As things stand, the Indian is an early favourite to become world champion. At the next Candidates two years from now, the current top players will be pushing at the wrong end of their 30s, and the band of young GMs will likely reach monster strengths. The 2026 World Championship could very well be contested between two players aged 22 or under.

Garry Kasparov, the youngest-ever world champion at 22, could see his record being smashed later this year. Gukesh already broke Kasparov’s youngest-ever Candidates winner record. Referring to the teen’s win, he wrote on X: “The Indian earthquake in Toronto is the culmination of the shifting tectonic plates in the chess world as the 17-year-old Gukesh D will face the Chinese champion Ding Liren for the highest title. The ‘children’ of Vishy Anand are on the loose!”

Renowned trainer R B Ramesh, who has coached many youngsters including R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali to the highest level, feels that the ‘earthquake’ probably happened a year ago.

“I am not sure (about when things started changing exactly) because I feel it started happening probably one year ago and it is only now that it's being noticed,” said Ramesh. “It’s not just because of online chess. These kids have been working a lot harder than previous generations, they have access to technology, training, quality competitions from a very young age, and they are not afraid to challenge the old order.”

But Srinath Narayanan, another top trainer, who has worked with Nihal Sarin and Arjun Erigaisi in the past and also was the captain of the India A team at the 2022 FIDE Chess Olympiad, feels that online chess has played a crucial role in their rapid growth. Experience that would earlier take years to compile is now happening at a much faster rate.

“The growth chart is not like the previous generations,” said Srinath. “Gukesh is just 17 but he has had the experience of playing all the top players in the world multiple times. In the 1990s, this just wouldn’t happen and even a decade ago, you would need to wait before this would happen. But for Gukesh the jitters that are normally associated with playing a top player are out of the way already. There is a massive psychological element in chess and the youngsters are already acing that.”

The other aspect that stands out is the approach of the younger group. If one picked up a chess book from the 90s, it would approach problems in a very fixed manner, and most players would adhere to those particular lines. But chess has changed now. The group including Gukesh (17), Praggnanandhaa (18), Arjun Erigaisi (20), Nihal Sarin (19), Alireza Firouzja (20), Vincent Keymer (19), and Nodirbek Abdusattorov (19) is very flexible.

“It’s not that we haven’t seen an influx of new players in the past,” Srinath said, “Bobby Fischer, Garry Kasparov, (Vishy) Anand did the same in their time. Magnus Carlsen and Sergey Karjakin also burst through. Eventually, someone new comes along. but what used to take 20 years is happening in two years. If you tell young players today to not follow a particular line they will respond with a 'Why not!'.”

But does this mean the older lot will find it harder to land the big titles? For many years, Caruana, Nepomniachtchi, Ding Liren, and others of their generation were kept at bay by Carlsen. Now, when they would have perhaps felt it was their time, Gukesh and Co have made their move.

"I believe this Candidates result will have a dampening effect on the seniors, but I don't think this was their final opportunity," said Ramesh. "The ones who can combat their negativity well will continue to remain contenders for the top honours in the years ahead.”

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