Gukesh Dommaraju, 18, becomes youngest chess world champion in history

India’s 18-year-old prodigy Gukesh Dommaraju capped his meteoric rise by becoming the youngest world chess champion in history after defeating Ding Liren 7½-6½ in a tense championship in Singapore.

The teenager, already the youngest challenger to compete for the world title, gained the point required in the final of the best-of-14 classic games to beat defending champion Ding, banking his share of the $2.5 million prize fund in the process.

He becomes India’s second world chess champion, following five-time champion Viswanathan Anand who last won the world title in 2013, and, as the sport’s youngest-ever world champion, breaks the previous record held by Garry Kasparov. In 1985, Kasparov dethroned Anatoly Karpov aged 22.

Gukesh was the in-form player entering the tournament, but it was a tight contest throughout with the players level on 6½ points each with one classical game remaining. Ding made a one-move blunder late in Game 14 which handed Gukesh the title-winning point and prevented tiebreakers.

It has been a remarkable few years for the teenager, the son of a surgeon and a microbiologist. Until the summer of 2022, he was solely ranked as a junior. A grand master aged 12, seven months and seven days (the second-youngest at the time), he has gone on to become the third youngest player to reach a FIDE rating of 2,700 and the youngest to achieve a rating of 2,750. Aged 17, in what was the final round of qualifying for the world title, he overcame the odds and got the better of more celebrated players at the Candidates Tournament to earn a title shot against Ding.

Ding, ranked 22nd in the world, has had a difficult reign as world champion, taking a nine-month break from the sport last year for mental health reasons. Before this Championship, he hadn’t won a classical game since January and had only played 44 classical games since winning the world title in April 2023.

He did well to put in strong performances in Singapore, claiming a surprise win in the opening game. Another victory in the 12th game left the tie deadlocked. It had seemed that Gukesh had claimed a significant win in Game 11 after a series of draws between the two before Ding fought back in Monday’s Game 12. A draw in the penultimate game left both within touching distance of the trophy.

(Top photo: Roslan Rahman/AFP via Getty Images)