GOAT-kesh smashes chess records

Written by: Aarthi Ramnath, Raghav Bikhchandani & Yash Budhwar

GOAT-kesh smashes chess records

Gukesh Dommaraju is the youngest ever World Chess Champion—breaking the record set by Garry Kasparov back in 1985. The 18-year-old from Chennai beat the reigning champ—China’s Ding Liren—in a gruelling 14-game series that lasted over two weeks. You can watch the emotional moment of his record-making history:

Wait, what did he win? The global calendar of chess has loads of prestigious tournaments—but the World Chess Championship is kinda like the Oscars—or maybe the FIFA World Cup. There have only been eighteen world chess champions since the late nineteenth century. Wilhelm Steinmitz of Austria-Hungary—yeah, that’s how ancient this title is—was the first. The legendary Garry Kasparov was #13—followed by hamara Vishy Anand who became #15 in 2007.

How the championship works: The tournament is a series of matches between the reigning champion and the ‘challenger’—who has to win a qualifying event called the Candidates’ Tournament—featuring the creme de la creme of that chess season. Gukesh aced that in April to qualify.

About the face-off: It was the 14th and very last game of the championship. It would have gone to tiebreakers, if this game had been a draw. The path to the final game was a classic rollercoaster. Ding won the first game—only to be tied in the fourth by Gukesh—who lost his advantage in the 12th.

The critical error: In the end, Gukesh won because Ding made a fatal error on his 55th move—handing the game to his opponent. Before that, the game seemed headed for another draw. But the way he won also sparked ugly insinuations from the Russian federation:

The result of the last game caused bewilderment among professionals and chess fans. The actions of the Chinese chess player in the decisive segment are extremely suspicious and require a separate investigation by FIDE. Losing the position in which Ding Liren was is difficult even for a first class player. The defeat of the Chinese chess player in today’s game raises a lot of questions and looks like a deliberate one.

Others like former World Chess champion Vladimir Kramnik criticised the “poor quality” of the play.

As for Gukesh: He has remained unruffled and humble as ever, saying: “Becoming the world champion does not mean I am the best player, obviously that is Magnus [Carlsen].”

The bigger picture: Gukesh’s history-making victory is the latest in a list of achievements of Indian chess players such as Praggnanandhaa. In September, the Indian team won 32 games—with zero defeats. It is also testimony to Chennai’s reputation as an incubator of world champions—especially the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy. Reminder: The city hosted the Chess Olympiad in 2022.

Reading list: Al Jazeera has more on Gukesh’s win. The Hindu explains why the World Championship is the greatest chess event. The Hindu also has a good profile of Gukesh. The Guardian has the best and most colourful coverage of the entire series.

Supreme Court shuts down mandir-masjid lawsuits

The context: In 1991, the Narsimha Rao government also passed the Places of Worship Act to reassure Muslims there would be no more Babri Masjids—after it was torn down by Hindutva activists. This is what the law said:

An Act to prohibit conversion of any place of worship and to provide for the maintenance of the religious character of any place of worship as it existed on the 15th day of August, 1947, and for matters connected therewith or incidental thereto.

It also said that all legal challenges based on such pre-independence claims shall be suspended—and no new claim will be entertained. Later, in 2019—when the Supreme Court ruled in the Babri Masjid case—the justices again claimed that the decision to award Hindus the land was an exception—not the rule. Lots more context in this Big Story.

But, but, but: In recent years, there have been a flood of similar claims—about mosques built on buried mandirs. They are admitted by local courts—which order a ‘survey’ to find the temple. Cue a full-blown political brawl. There have been a total of 18 cases filed over four mosques, the most famous being the Gyanvapi mosque in Varanasi and Eidgah Masjid in Mathura. More recently, there have been fights over masjids in Sambhal, Ajmer, and Uttarkashi—leading to violent clashes.

Point to note: Until now, the Supreme Court has waffled—especially under Chief Justice Chandrachud. In 2022, the Court rejected petitions that argued any ‘survey’ of the Gyanvapi Mosque violated the Places of Worship Act.

What happened now: The Supreme Court bench—led by the new CJI Sanjiv Khanna—has agreed to hear petitions challenging the Places of Worship Act. But the Court also banned lower courts from entertaining fresh lawsuits challenging places of worship—or from undertaking any action on existing cases. This includes orders to conduct a survey of the premises. Justice KV Viswanathan said: “Civil courts cannot run a race with the Supreme Court. It is as simple as that.”

Point to note: Hindu groups have challenged the Places of Worship Act as unconstitutional—especially a clause that even bans judicial review of its legality.

The big picture: The Court shut the door opened by Justice Chandrachud—to stop the flood of mandir-masjid lawsuits. But, but, but: it has agreed to revisit the validity of the law that protects these mosques. The Telegraph and The Hindu have more on the ruling.

India Inc mantra: make profit, freeze wages?

The context: There are four “engines” of economic growth: Private consumption, private investment, exports and government spending. The first three have been stalling out—and sarkaari investments in infrastructure have taken up the load of driving economic growth. But, but, but: in the second quarter this year, the Indian economy’s growth rate fell to a two-year low—to a shocking 5.4%. Everyone blamed mehengaai—or high inflation—but the real big change from previous quarters was a slowdown in government spending. FYI: private investment has remained in a steady decline since 2011-12.

What happened now: A new report reveals another big reason why private consumption is so weak: Stagnant wages—between 2019 and 2023. Across six sectors—engineering, manufacturing, process and infrastructure—the compounded annual wage growth rate is a shocking 0.8%. The rate for fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) is far healthier—at 5.4%.

But neither number is sufficient to help salaries keep pace with mehengayi: “Over the five years from 2019-20 till 2023-24, retail inflation rose 4.8%, 6.2%, 5.5%, 6.7% and 5.4%, respectively. In other words, even employees in formal sectors have witnessed marginal or negative growth in their income.

Point to note: The picture is even more dismal for rural India: “[I]n real inflation-adjusted terms, the average annual growth was -0.4% for rural and 0.2% for agricultural wages during this period.”

The kicker: The profits of India Inc were at a 15-year high as of March 2024. Chief Economic Advisor to the government—V Anantha Nageswaran—pointed out that there is a severe imbalance in the share of profit going to capital (owners) and the percentage being given to labour. But this lopsided distribution is going to hurt companies in the long run:

Without that [increasing wages], there will not be adequate demand in the economy for corporates’ own products to be purchased. In other words, not paying workers, or not hiring workers enough, will end up being actually self-destructive or harmful for the corporate sector itself.

Point to note: India Inc’s investment record is pretty shabby as well:

The growth in private investment lasted until the global financial crisis of 2007-08. It rose from around 10% of GDP in the 1980s to around 27% in 2007-08. From 2011-12 onwards, however, private investment began to drop and hit a low of 19.6% of the GDP in 2020-21.

Question to ask: If they are not ploughing their profits back into their companies—or using it to give raises to their employees… paisa kahan ja raha hai? FYI: sales of luxury cars in India are at an all-time high. The Hindu has more on our troubled recent history on private investment. (Indian Express)

Moving on to happier numbers: According to a new government report, our female labour force participation (LFPR) experienced a huge jump between 2017-18 to 2022-23: In rural areas, the rate rose from 24.6% to 41.5%. In urban areas, the spike was more modest—20.4% to 25.4%. The sarkaari study credits sarkaari schemes and self-help groups, but there isn’t any independent analysis that explains this rise, just yet. (Mint)

Say hello to ‘on-demand' solar eclipses

On December 5, the European Space Agency launched two satellites within 20 minutes of each other from Sriharikota, India. Occulter and Cornograph are part of the Proba-3 mission which will create “solar eclipses on demand”—in order to study the outermost layer of the Sun called corona. Think of it as a space tango:

The Occulter will line itself up with the sun and use a disc — the stand-in for the Moon — to cast a shadow onto the Cornograph, which will be about 500 feet away. The two satellites must be aligned down to the precise millimeter to avoid excessive light leaking through and hindering data.

It’s both very cool and very tricky: “Think about standing at one end of a football field and landing a pass on a penny at the other end.” The European Space Agency clip shows you why. (Washington Post, paywalled, Quartz)

Meet the ocean marathon runner of 2024

Researchers have identified a male humpback whale that swam 8,106.4 miles or 13,000 km—smashing all the previous migration records. These whales typically cover long distances when travelling from warm tropical breeding grounds to feeding grounds in cooler waters. But this fella is something else. He was first photographed in 2013 near the Pacific coast of Colombia. But in 2022, he popped up off the coast of Zanzibar, Africa—most likely looking for sex, lol!

FYI: The whale is also the first marine animal to change breeding grounds from the Pacific to the Indian Ocean—maybe due to climate change—which is a less happy thought. You can see the tail markings of this champ below—which is also how whales are identified. (Gizmodo)

what caught our eye

business & tech

In a historic first, Elon Musk’s net worth has topped $400 billion. The unsurprising bit: 77% of the increase in his fortune has come after Trump’s election win.
In anticipation of Donald Trump’s return, Mukesh bhai inked a $13 billion-a-year deal to import 500,000 barrels of Russian crude oil every day.
The Zuck donated $1 million to Donald Trump’s inauguration fund. Now that’s a friend request with serious benefits.
Australia plans to tax large digital platforms and search engines unless they agree to share revenue with Australian news media organisations. Earlier, Meta said it would not renew three-year deals to pay these organisations for their content.

sports & entertainment

The next Patrick Bateman will be…Austin Butler, who is set to star in Luca Guadagnino’s upcoming adaptation of ‘American Psycho’—almost 25 years after Christian Bale gave single women nightmares.
The attempts to censor Diljit Dosanjh’s ongoing concert tour continue—this time, a child rights group in Chandigarh has advised the pop star to refrain from singing about alcohol.
The Indian women’s cricket team endured a disastrous 3-0 ODI series whitewash loss to Australia. But, but, but: Smriti Mandhana scored her fourth hundred of 2024 in the final ODI—breaking the record for most ODI hundreds within a calendar year.

as for the rest

A gentle reminder that Israel killed 66 Palestinians in Gaza yesterday—including 15 people guarding aid trucks.
As part of a new deal signed with Andhra Pradesh, Google will set up a new office in Visakhapatnam and work on “developing data centres, AI, machine learning (ML), deep technology, and internet sea cables”.
The suicide of IT worker Atul Subhash—who alleged that his estranged wife Nikita abused him—has prompted social media outrage at his wife’s employer Accenture (?!).
Just 20 countries are responsible for most of the surge in carbon emissions, according to a new study.
Donald Trump, once doubtful he'd be named Time's ‘Person of the Year,’ has now earned the title twice and celebrated by ringing the NYSE opening bell.
Pakistani apparel startup Laam has raised $5.5 million to build an online marketplace of desi fashion for migrants around the world.
According to a new report, TikTok’s annual carbon footprint is larger than that of Greece. Coming in second in the social media hall of shame: YouTube.
Gizmodo has a cool read on ‘iceberg hitchhikers’—harbour seals that carefully choose which iceberg to ride during their migration.
British pubs are running out of Guinness just in time for Christmas. That’s downright sacrilegious!

Two things to see

One: The AI startup Artisan wants you to “Stop Hiring Humans.” As their billboards explain: “Artisans won’t complain about work-life balance.” As expected, this is just another PR stunt. Just like YesMadam—which pretended to sack its stressed employees. (Gizmodo)

Two: Astronomers have spotted a mysterious object called C4—which became visible when hit by a jet of material from a black hole 12 million light-years away. No one knows wtf it is—but the photo sure looks cool. (ScienceAlert)

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