AFP
Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju shocked the chess world on Thursday by becoming 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 hosted in Singapore and in which he had participated as a challenger.
It was the high point of his career, the greatest 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 outspoken about his dream of being a world champion.
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Gukesh won gold medals at the FIDE Chess Olympiad in September.
In fact, he said he has harbored such ambitions since the age of seven, while watching a world title match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen in 2013.
As he admitted in the press conference following his dramatic victory over Ding, he just didn't think it would happen so soon.
Gukesh is the 18th world champion since Wilhelm Steinitz won what is considered the first title match in 1886.
Born in May 2006, Gukesh is also, by far, the youngest player to have climbed this summit.
He comfortably bettered the previous record held by Garry Kasparov (born April 1963), aged 22 when he won the title in Moscow in November 1985 by defeating Anatoly Karpov.
The 14-game matchup was tied with two wins apiece after 13 games. It looked like the 14th game was headed for a draw.
In this case, tie-breaks would have been played at increasingly shorter time controls.
But Ding made a mistake on move 55 and Gukesh exploited the mistake to clinch the title.
Over the past three years, the young player has achieved a series of extraordinary achievements, the culmination of which is this victory.
Gukesh won the individual gold medal for the best performance in the last two Olympiads. He led India to a team bronze medal in Chennai in 2022 and the gold medal in 2024 in Budapest.
He also won the Candidates, the tournament that earned him the right to challenge Ding Liren.
Earlier in his teenage years, Gukesh was ruled out as a potential challenger by his mentor, former world champion Viswanathan Anand, or “Vishy Sir” as Gukesh calls him. He thought Gukesh just didn't have enough experience.
Indeed, Gukesh suffered a seemingly catastrophic defeat midway through, but then rallied to win in the next round and ultimately won the event.
In the title match, Gukesh lost the first game and tied with a win in the third game. He then took the lead in the eleventh game and Ding equalized with a victory in the twelfth game.
Match 14 was obviously high tension with the title and a $2.5 million (£1.98 million) prize pool on the line, but the teenager kept his nerves in check.
Gukesh is obviously an extraordinary talent but this is not the romantic story of a lone ranger surprising the world. The Chennai GM sits atop a robust chess ecosystem, which is one of the best, perhaps the best, in the world.
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The spotlight is now on Gukesh, following his meteoric rise.
Gukesh was also strongly supported by his parents, by the chess establishment in India and by his school.
India has more than 85 grandmasters, many of whom are not yet old enough to drive.
Indian teams have been successful recently, winning both open gold (with Gukesh at the top) and women's gold at the last Olympiad in Budapest.
These grandmasters sit at the top of a pyramid with more than 30,000 ranked players, as a large number of Indians compete in officially sanctioned tournaments.
Gukesh has been a professional gamer since he was around 10 years old. He is mentored by Viswanathan Anand, who is himself a five-time world champion.
AFP
Gukesh's chess games were broadcast live to some schools in India.
It is sponsored by Westbridge Capital, which supports the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy, a leading coaching center managed by Anand.
Gukesh's parents are both doctors, his father Rajinikanth is a surgeon and his mother Padma is a microbiologist. Both put their careers on hold to push their son.
Chess becomes an expensive game when a child has to travel abroad for several months each year. So his parents not only invested their own income to support their son, but they also asked friends to help fund 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 become 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”. According to him, the title is only a step, although very important, in this life journey.
