At just 20 years old, Vincent Keymer has been a chess grand master for the past six years. He turned pro after graduating from high school in 2023 and is currently ranked 20th in the world. No German has climbed this high in the rankings since the late grand master Robert Hübner was at his peak some 50 years ago.

"Top 20 is nice, but it's not where I want to be in the long term," Keymer tells DW.

His goal for the next few months is to qualify for the Candidates Tournament for the 2026 World Championship. Many believe that Keymer, who is as confident as he is serene, will be capable of playing for the world title in the next few years.

Seconding a world champion

The current champion is 18-year-old Indian Dommaraju Gukesh, who captured the World Chess Championship crown from Ding Liren of China in a tight match before Christmas.

Following the tournament, it emerged that Keymer had a part in Gukesh's victory, having been part of the Indian's team of seconds (players that help get competitors in the buildup).

"My role was about helping to prepare the openings," Keymer says.

The first few moves are of great importance in chess. The aim is to pose problems for the opponent as early as possible and avoid being surprised yourself.

While Gukeh and Ding Liren faced each other in Singapore at the end of 2024, Keymer sat with two other grandmasters in a villa in Spain and analyzed moves on the computer. Professional chess has been characterized by the collaboration of man and machine for many years.

"I worked on my computer. That is now completely sufficient to prepare the variations in a world championship match," Keymer says.

As soon as he and his colleagues had worked out a fitting sequence of moves, they sent it to Singapore.

"You are encouraged to bring your own style and ideas to the table. But in the end, of course, Gukesh and his head coach decide what happens on the board."

AI not so new in chess

Computers have been an integral part of chess since 1997. Back then, the IBM mainframe computer Deep Blue beat the then-world champion Gary Kasparov. The next big developmental step came in 2017: Google researcher and Nobel Prize winner Demis Hassabis applied the self-learning artificial intelligence (AI) program "Alpha Zero" to chess. The result: more and more openings that chess professionals have spent decades refining have now been analyzed by AI. Gukesh, Keymer & Co. are all familiar with the best sequences, which usually end in a draw.

You might think this would make chess boring, but Keymer dismisses the notion.

"Now it's getting interesting again," the grandmaster says. "The young generation, which includes me, is very ambitious and doesn't want to draw."

Instead of the established opening systems, secondary variations are increasingly common. While they may only amount to a second choice for computers, in practice they offer a lot of opportunities.

Their use represents a calculated risk, because unlike the almost omniscient computers, humans cannot memorize all move sequences and tend to make mistakes under time pressure.

"The transition from preparation to thinking for yourself is critical," Keymer says. "At my level, even a small change in the sequence of moves can cost you the game."

But not everyone in the chess scene sees it this way. Former world champion Magnus Carlsen, who remains No. 1 in the world rankings, is no longer keen on trying out new side paths in the openings with the help of ever-improving AI systems. Carlsen is now concentrating on rapid chess, a discipline in which Vincent Keymer was also once runner-up in the world championship.

"It's true that many of the top players prefer faster time controls," Keymer confirms.

But for him, the point has not yet been reached at which classic chess is no longer fun.

Freestyle as opposed to AI

However, Keymer is very interested in a chess variant that was invented by the legendary US champion Bobby Fischer: In "Fischer Random," the starting position is drawn before each game, so there is no call for computer preparation, as in classic chess. This is precisely what makes Fischer Random so appealing to many players. This chess variant has been promoted for the past year by Hamburg entrepreneur Jan Henric Buettner, who now also financially supports Keymer and other top German players.

Buettner calls it "freestyle" and organizes his own tournament series with the best players in the world. Carlsen Gukesh, and Keymer are among the competitors.

"Freestyle still has great potential for development," Germany's best chess player believes.

Keymer's next big freestyle event is coming up next month. Before that, however, the chess pro still has the classic chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee in the Netherlands, which is regarded as the Wimbledon of chess. There he will also meet Dommaraju Gukesh.

"The preparation for Wijk aan Zee is already at a similar level to a World Championship," Keymer says. 

"That's why I'm now working with the same standards of quality and precision." 

Gukesh should watch out. The chess scene is already eager to see what side variations Keymer has prepared on his PC for his match against the world champion.

This article was originally published in German.