How the Indian teenager became the youngest world chess champion

Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju shocked the chess world on Thursday when he became the youngest world champion at just 18 years old.

The Chennai-born prodigy defeated the defending champion, China’s Ding Liren, in a dramatic match held in Singapore in which he had participated as a challenger. The FIDE World Chess Championship has a prize fund of $2.5 million (£1.96 million).

It marked the peak of his career to date, his most important moment in a long series of achievements.

Gukesh became a grandmaster at the age of 12 years and seven months and even then he was candid about the fact that he dreamed of being a world champion.

In fact, he said he had harbored such ambitions since he was seven years old, when he watched a world title match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen in 2013.

As he confessed in the press conference following his dramatic victory against Ding, he simply didn’t think it would happen so soon.

“Throughout the match I had several opportunities to get wins and many of the plays would have put me ahead quite seriously. But once I got close I got nervous and couldn’t finish it,” Gukesh. he told the BBC after the victory.

“…And then suddenly…it was a sudden change and I couldn’t process all the new information so quickly.”

Gukesh is the 18th world champion since Wilhelm Steinitz won what is considered the first title match back in 1886.

Born in May 2006, Gukesh is also by far the youngest player to have ascended to this pinnacle.

He comfortably improved the previous record of Garry Kasparov (born April 1963), who was 22 years old when he won the title in Moscow in November 1985 by beating Anatoly Karpov.

The 14-game match was tied with two wins apiece after 13 games. It seemed that the fourteenth game was on its way to a tie.

In that case, tiebreakers would have been played with progressively shorter time controls.

But Ding made a mistake on move 55 and Gukesh took advantage of the mistake to take the title.

Over the past three years, the young player has achieved a series of extraordinary achievements culminating in this victory.

Gukesh won the individual gold medal for best performance in the last two Olympics. He led India to win the team bronze in Chennai in 2022 and the gold medal in 2024 in Budapest.

He also won the Candidates tournament, the tournament that earned him the right to challenge Ding Liren.

In his early teens, Gukesh was dismissed as a possible challenger by his mentor, former world champion Viswanathan Anand, or “Vishy Sir” as Gukesh calls him. He thought that Gukesh simply did not have enough experience.

In fact, Gukesh suffered a seemingly catastrophic defeat in the middle stage, but then recovered to win in the next round and ultimately took the event.

In the title match, Gukesh lost the first game and tied with a win in the third game, then took the lead in the eleventh game and Ding tied with a win in the twelfth game.

Game 14 was obviously high tension with the title and a prize pool at stake, but the teenager controlled his nerves.

Obviously, Gukesh is an extraordinary talent, but this is not the romantic story of a lone ranger who surprises the world. The Chennai GM sits at the apex of a robust chess ecosystem, which is one of the best, perhaps the best, in the world.

Gukesh has also received strong support from his parents, the Indian chess community and his school.

India has more than 85 grandmasters, many of whom are not yet of driving age.

Indian teams have been successful recently, winning both the open gold (with Gukesh on the first board) and women’s gold at the last Olympics in Budapest.

Those grandmasters are at the top of a pyramid with more than 30,000 qualified players, because a large number of Indians play officially sanctioned tournaments.

Gukesh has been a professional player since he was about 10 years old. His mentor is Viswanathan Anand, who is a five-time world champion.

It is sponsored by Westbridge Capital, which supports the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy, a major training center run by Anand.

Gukesh’s parents are doctors, his father Rajinikanth is a surgeon and his mother Padma is a microbiologist. Both put their careers on hold to support their son.

“At first I only saw my family members playing chess at home, as a hobby, like any other board game. But then I became interested in the game and enrolled in a summer chess camp at my school… there “One of the coaches saw that he had good talent for it,” Gukesh told the BBC.

Chess becomes an expensive game when a child has to travel abroad for several months each year, so his parents not only used their own income to support their son, but also asked their friends to help finance collectively Gukesh’s career until it took off.

Importantly, he also received support from his school, Velammal Vidyalaya in Mogappair, which allowed him to take leave.

Gukesh also has interests outside of chess: he meditates, swims and plays tennis.

His stated goals are simple: he wants to be the best chess player in the world, supplanting the current number one, Magnus Carlsen.

He also wants to have a “very long career at the top.” In his opinion, the title is just one step, albeit a very important one, in the journey of life.