Many feel Sindarov will win easily, but I don’t think so: Wei Yi

Wei Yi became, at 15, the world’s youngest chess player to reach the rating of 2700 Elo points. His record stood for 11 years before it was broken by the Turkish prodigy Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus. Wei had become a Grandmaster at 13. Last year in Goa he finished runner-up at the World Cup and thus qualified for the Candidates tournament. He worked as a second for compatriot Ding Liren, the 2023 World champion from China. Excerpts from an interview Wei, the World No. 9, gave The Hindu at Bengaluru, where he played for Triveni Continental Kings at the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League last month:How did you get interested in chess as a kid?I learned chess together with my parents. And I started to beat them after maybe two or three months. So they took me to the chess club in my hometown, Yancheng, in the Jiangsu province. I was at the club for about one-and-a-half or two years. I became very strong and actually the strongest in the club. Then my parents took me to another city so that I could improve my chess. And after a year, we went to another city. So we went to many cities to improve my chess.What is the situation in China now? Is there a lot of support for chess? Chinese women continue to dominate world chess.I think we need more support. There are many good young players. Maybe they are not as strong as players like Gukesh and Pragg [R. Praggnanandhaa], but they are still talented. But some of them stopped playing after they went to school or university.That is quite a thing in China, isn’t it? You took time off to go to university. As did the women’s World No. 1 Hou Yifan. She is a university professor and is working on her PhD…Hou Yifan, yes, she studied well and also she has won the World championship.Yes, several times. And what are your thoughts on the boy who beat your record as the youngest to reach 2700, Erdogmus?Of course, he is very talented. But he needs more tournaments and needs to gain experience.Picture of concentration: Wei Yi in action at the FIDE World Cup in Goa last year. | Photo Credit: FIDE Who are the other youngsters you are impressed with?Faustino Oro is very good. And V. Pranav, my teammate at Triveni Continental Kings in the GCL, is also very strong. I have found that he loves chess. And there are many other talented young Indian players, like Leon Mendonca.You worked with Ding Liren as one of his seconds when he won the World championship in 2023, beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the title match.I didn’t go with him for his match [in Astana, Kazakhstan]. We played training games before the match, rapid and blitz. We have been teammates for many years and also good friends.At the World Cup in Goa last year, you lost to Javokhir Sindarov in the final. That tournament marked the beginning of Sindarov’s great run. Has his rapid rise as a top player surprised you?Yes. He gets good support from his government, which is important. He has improved a lot as a player; he has become more all-rounded.He is soon going to challenge D. Gukesh for the World championship…Maybe Gukesh has not been in good shape in the recent months, but I think it will be a close match. The two players will show their best and there will be a wonderful fighting match. And Gukesh has the experience of playing a World championship match. I think many players feel Sindarov will win easily, but I don’t think so.Though you lost to Sindarov in the final at the World Cup in Goa, it was still one of your best performances in recent times. You played 27 games without a loss, until that defeat to Sindarov in the tie-breaker of the final. How do you look back to your time in Goa?I spent one month in Goa with my friend, Xu Xiangyu. I played well in the tournament, and I enjoyed the time. I think it is very important that you spend your time with your friend.You played some fine games in Goa, and you knocked out Arjun Erigaisi, who was one of the favourites; he was also the highest rated player in the tournament.Yes, it was a nice win against Arjun. And I particularly enjoyed my victory against Kacper Piorun in the second round. He missed the beautiful tactics from me.History maker: Wei Yi, seen here at the 2023 Asian Games, helped China win its first Olympiad title at just 15. He says he wasn’t as excited as some of his teammates because he was young. | Photo Credit: Getty Images You were part of the team that won the first ever title for China at the Chess Olympiad.Yes, we made history for China. Of my teammates, Ni Hua and Wang Yue were very excited. Ding Liren, Yu Yangyi and I were not as excited as them, that was because we were young.You were 15 at the time…Yes. Ni and Wang were excited because they had been trying for the title for many years and were winning for the first time, And it was not easy, you know, there were several strong teams, like the USA. Even India had a good team.Yes, though it wasn’t as star-studded as the Indian team of today, it won bronze. At that time you were 15, the age at which you became the youngest player to cross 2700.It was one of my dreams to reach 2700. But in my childhood, my goal was to become the World champion. But to be a Word champion, you need a lot of things, such as support.You are popular with the Indian fans. You are mobbed for autographs. For me, one of the enduring images from the World Cup in Goa is your interaction with your young fans, two children. They were waiting for your autograph. You came out of the venue after drawing with Andrey Esipenko in a tough battle in the opening game of the semifinal. You bent down to pose for a photograph with the boy, while the girl took the photograph and she said to you, ‘Congratulations’.Yes, I remember the incident. In India, there are many, many chess fans. And it was fantastic to see the big crowds for the GCL. That means chess is growing fast in India and it has become such an important sport in India. I hope something like this happens in China, too. I think maybe we need more international and high-level events.