Indian chess world champion Dommaraju Gukesh revealed a rare glimpse of the mental battle when he had to face his long-time idol Viswanathan Anand during the Global Chess League (GCL) 2025 in Mumbai. In his words, it was "like playing against God." When sharing his experience with the official broadcast, Gukesh mentioned that confronting Anand meant fighting against his huge and profound respect that turned out to be so overwhelming that he could hardly dare to apply full force, even if it was a competition.
Afterwards, Dommaraju Gukesh explained that it was mainly due to Anand's speed, experience, and ability to throwaway even the most complicated positions that he found the encounter the most exhausting one. The Indian talent admitted that the act of finding within himself the "killer instinct" against the person he had followed as a model all his life was a tough nut for his mind. Anand, who has won the chess world championship 5 times and has been the pivot of Indian chess, as well as a great source of motivation for the current chess generation, including Gukesh, is now the latter's opponent.
During the Global Chess League's playoff for third place, Dommaraju Gukesh, representing the Alaskan Knights, played against Grandmaster Vishwanathan Anand, representing the Ganges Grandmasters. The first rapid game between the two grandmasters went decisively to Anand, and then the second rapid game resulted in a draw. The two grandmasters then conducted blitz tiebreak games where Anand maintained the pressure with a victory and a draw, but in the final blitz game, Gukesh did gain a much-needed victory to help his team finish in third place.
This match was one of the most highly watched moments of the 2025 GCL due to Gukesh being the present World Champion and Anand still being one of the elite players in chess. Anand had already beaten Gukesh in the group stage earlier in the tournament, showing that even though Anand was decades older than Gukesh, he had not lost his competitive edge. The Global Chess League title was eventually won by SG Pipers, led by R Praggnanandhaa, who defeated two-time defending champions Continental Kings in the final.
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