How the Indian teenager became youngest world chess champion

Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju shocked the world of chess on Thursday when he grew to become the youngest world champion on the age of simply 18.

The Chennai-born prodigy defeated defending champion, China’s Ding Liren, in a dramatic match staged in Singapore which he had entered because the challenger. The FIDE World Chess Championship carries a $2.5m (£1.96m) prize fund.

It marked the height thus far of his profession, his best second in an extended string of achievements.

Gukesh grew to become a grandmaster aged 12 years and 7 months and even then, he was upfront about the truth that he dreamt of being the world champion.

Actually, he stated he had harboured such ambitions since he was seven when he was a spectator at a World Title match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen in 2013.

As he confessed on the press convention following his dramatic win in opposition to Ding, he simply did not suppose it might occur so quickly.

“All through the match I had a number of possibilities to clinch victories and lots of the video games which might have put me within the entrance foot fairly significantly. However as soon as I used to be getting shut I used to be getting nervous and I used to be not capable of end him off,” Gukesh informed the BBC after the win.

“…After which abruptly…it was a sudden change and I couldn’t course of all the brand new info so shortly.”

Gukesh is the 18th world champion since Wilhelm Steinitz received what is taken into account the primary title match approach again in 1886.

Born in Could 2006, Gukesh can be, by far, the youngest participant to have ascended this pinnacle.

He comfortably improved upon the prior document held by Garry Kasparov (born April 1963) who was 22 when he received the title in Moscow in November 1985 by beating Anatoly Karpov.

The 14-game match was tied with two wins every after 13 video games. It seemed as if the 14th recreation was heading for a draw.

In that case, there would have been tiebreaks performed at progressively shorter time controls.

However Ding blundered on transfer 55 and Gukesh exploited the error to clinch the title.

During the last three years the younger participant has made a string of extraordinary achievements, culminating on this victory.

Gukesh received the person gold medal for finest efficiency within the final two Olympiads. He led India to a workforce bronze at Chennai in 2022 and the gold medal in 2024 in Budapest.

He additionally received the Candidates – the event that earned him the best to problem Ding Liren.

Earlier in his teenagers, Gukesh was dominated out as a potential challenger by his mentor, the previous world champion Viswanathan Anand, or “Vishy Sir” as Gukesh calls him. He thought Gukesh merely did not have sufficient expertise.

Certainly, Gukesh suffered an apparently catastrophic loss on the halfway stage, however then he pulled himself collectively to win within the subsequent spherical and finally took the occasion.

Within the title match Gukesh misplaced the primary recreation, and equalised with a win in recreation three, he then took the lead in recreation eleven and Ding equalised with a win in recreation 12.

Sport 14 was clearly high-tension with the title and a prize fund at stake, however the teenager managed his nerves.

Gukesh is clearly a rare expertise however this isn’t the romantic story of a lone ranger shocking the world. The Chennai GM is on the apex of a strong chess ecosystem, which is likely one of the finest, maybe the very best, on this planet.

Gukesh has additionally been strongly supported by his dad and mom, by the chess institution in India, and by his faculty.

India has over 85 grandmasters, lots of whom will not be but of driving age.

Indian groups have succeeded not too long ago, successful each the Open Gold (with Gukesh on prime board) and the Ladies’s gold on the final Olympiad in Budapest.

These grandmasters are on the tip of a pyramid with over 30,000 rated gamers, as a result of an enormous variety of Indians play formally sanctioned tournaments.

Gukesh has been an expert participant since he was round 10 years outdated. He’s mentored by Viswanathan Anand, who’s himself a five-time world champion.

He’s sponsored by Westbridge Capital, which helps the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy, a premier teaching centre run by Anand.

Gukesh’s dad and mom are each docs, his father Rajinikanth is a surgeon and mom Padma is a microbiologist. Each put their careers on maintain to push their son.

“Initially I simply used to observe my members of the family play chess at residence, simply as a interest, identical to another board recreation. However then I obtained within the recreation and I occurred to enrol in a chess summer season camp in my faculty… there one of many coaches noticed I had good expertise for that,” Gukesh informed the BBC.

Chess turns into an costly recreation when a baby has to journey overseas for a number of months of yearly, so his dad and mom not solely put their very own earnings into supporting their son, additionally they requested mates to assist crowd-fund Gukesh’s profession till it took off.

Importantly, he additionally obtained assist from his faculty, Velammal Vidyalaya in Mogappair, which allowed him to take depart.

Gukesh has pursuits exterior of chess too – he meditates, swims and performs tennis.

His acknowledged objectives are easy – he needs to be the very best chess participant within the World – supplanting the present primary, Magnus Carlsen.

He additionally needs to have a “very lengthy profession on the prime”. As he sees it, the title is just one step, albeit a vital one in that life journey.