World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov is not thinking about the summit clash against Dommaraju Gukesh yet. Earlier this year, the 20-year-old Uzbek earned his shot at the title by winning the Cyprus Candidates with a round to spare. But having returned to the country where it all began — it was in India that Sindarov won the FIDE World Cup in Goa in 2025 to qualify for the Candidates — he is keen to talk about everything except the upcoming Geneva encounter, where he will take on Gukesh in a series of 14 classical games running from November 22 to December 13.
"Right now, I'm focusing on my next events: the Global Chess League and the Olympiad," he told reporters on Friday. "After those, I will start preparing for the World Championship match." The Global Chess League (GCL) begins on Saturday. The Uzbek Grandmaster plays for the American Gambits there, then turns out for his national team at the Olympiad in Samarkand from 15 to 27 September. Gukesh will also represent India at the Chess Olympiad, but the GCL is one of several tournaments he has chosen to skip as he sharpens his focus on the World Championship match.
American Grandmaster Levon Aronian senses that the title fight between two 20-year-olds will hinge as much on temperament as on preparation. "Gukesh is a big fighter," he told TimesofIndia.com during an exclusive interview. "He has been a bit down, but I expect him to be in a fighting mood for the match. Of course, it's a tremendous pressure."
Gukesh became world champion at 18, the youngest to do so. Aronian sees an echo of an earlier era in that. Mikhail Tal, who won the title at 23 in 1960, was himself the youngest world champion of his time, before Garry Kasparov broke the record 25 years later. "You know, you're so young and your lifetime dream just came too early. I think the same kind of thing happened to Mikhail Tal. He also became a world champion too early. And of course, it's normal to be overwhelmed," Aronian added.
From a strategic point of view, Aronian feels the wider chess world to have already made up its mind about how Gukesh will approach the match. "I think people at the moment, they think that Gukesh is going to go and try to be very cautious, like in the similar style, like Ding (Liren) was doing against Nepomniachtchi, or also the way Ding was playing against Gukesh as well," he said with a smile.
Whether that script holds against Sindarov, he added, is the interesting question. "There are so many choices to make, and it's definitely going to be an interesting match from a strategical point. I expect Sindarov to be continuing playing very interesting chess the way he's doing. It's an interesting clash, I think. Hopefully, there will be lots of resulting games," he opined.
Asked whether failing to win the World Championship title himself was a source of regret, Aronian, who has been ranked World No. 2 and has won world titles in every format except classical, concluded, "I have no regrets whatsoever, because I never valued myself so highly as a chess player. Of course, I have talent, and I'm better than many of the world champions in my understanding of chess. But the way I got to be number two is already a miracle for me; my knowledge of chess was so much worse before.
"I'm not sure that setting up goals is a good thing for you. Sometimes it just adds to the anxiety. I think it's better just to enjoy and cherish what you have."
