Vincent Keymer takes aim at D Gukesh's crown with Chennai Grand Masters win

In Vincent Keymer's first media interaction in Chennai this week, he was told that this was the same hotel where Magnus Carlsen won his first world championship back in 2013. The spark in his eyes upon hearing that was unmistakable. He wanted to go to the hotel's swimming pool immediately - the very one in which Carlsen jumped into as one of his first acts as world champion.

Now, as champion of the 2025 Chennai Grand Masters, Keymer isn't quite going to do a Carlsen. He's going to wait to become world champion before doing that - the very thing that he helped Gukesh Dommaraju in becoming last year.

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Keymer's last trip to Chennai came last year for a training camp with Gukesh, where the only aim was to ensure that the young Indian was fully prepared for his crack at the World Championship against Ding Liren. Now, Gukesh's crown is Keymer's target.

It's not a far-fetched idea, says Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri. "If Vincent qualifies for the candidates, no one will be surprised. If Vincent wins the candidates, no one will be surprised. If Vincent beats Gukesh, maybe some people in Chennai will be surprised, but I won't be," Giri tells ESPN.

One look at his tournament in Chennai, and you'll see why. Keymer has six points in eight rounds, 1.5 points more than his nearest challengers - Arjun Erigaisi and Karthikeyan Murali. Delving deeper into it, Keymer never really had a bad position throughout the tournament. The evaluation engines tell us that his worst position in eight games was him being slightly worse during the middlegame against Erigaisi, and a slightly tricky endgame in the eighth round against Jorden van Foreest.

Keymer had to find a resource on move 44 to defend a position which was really sharp. He was concerned. His face had turned red, he was fiddling in his chair, he was visibly shaking. For a brief couple of minutes, Keymer was really tense about the position. He called it a self-inflicted difficulty. He found his way out of it. But in those nervy few moments, Keymer resembled a fish out of water. However, once he found that resource by pushing his pawn up the board, he eventually managed to calm himself down and ensured that there were no further roadblocks in his path to victory.

Now that he has won the tournament, Keymer has taken a solid first step towards that ultimate aim. It is the biggest win of his career in classical chess, he says. Before the start of the tournament, he had said that he was going to take this tournament as an option to train a bit and get a feeling of how his form is, for he hadn't played many classical tournaments in recent times. The Grand Swiss is only two weeks away, so there's not much time left for him to fully engage in preparations again.

Keymer now has a camp with the German team when he goes back home, and then a week of rest before heading to Uzbekistan for the Grand Swiss. It's his experiences throughout his career so far that he says have contributed to making him the player that he is, at the moment.

Saying that he enjoys attacking, Keymer says that the base of his chess is being solid, ensuring there are no gaps in his position. He says it is one of the things that his coach GM Peter Leko has consistently focused on, since the two started working together in November 2017.

Being one of Gukesh's seconds wasn't a direct help for his chess, the German says, because of how different they are as players. But going through the grind behind the scenes has helped him understand certain positions more profoundly. It has helped him build an even deeper understanding of certain openings, because of the work that went in to ensure that preparations for Gukesh were fool-proof. Giri says that Keymer's deep understanding of positions, combined with an excellent memory make him the player he is.

Entering the World Top 10 for the very first time, truly a special and memorable moment for me. Thank you to all the many people who supported me along the way it wouldn't have been possible without you. pic.twitter.com/ybCtt5PdKp

- Vincent Keymer (@VincentKeymer04) August 13, 2025

His performance so far in Chennai has also catapulted him into the world's top 10 on the live ratings, for the first time in his career. Avoid a loss in the ninth round against Ray Robson, and Keymer will stay there when the ratings are published at the beginning of September. That would mean the six of the top 10 in the world would be born in 2003 or later. Keymer says players born between 2003 and 2006 form the strongest of birth years through any generation of chess.

He wants to be the cream of that crop, which includes Gukesh, Arjun, R Praggnanandhaa, Nodirbek Abdusattorov and Alireza Firouzja. For that, he will have to qualify for the Candidates first. There are a couple of routes to get there in the next few months. Keymer doesn't care how, he just wants to be at the Candidates. By winning the Chennai Grand Masters, he's shown himself that he's in good chess form, and his confidence has been given another big boost. At the start of some of the most important phase of his chess career yet, Vincent Keymer has given the world, and himself, evidence that he is a serious threat at the top of the sport.