India's Gukesh Dommaraju made history on Thursday becoming just the second Indian chess player to win World Championship. The 18-year-old becomes the 18th GM and just the second Indian GM, after the legendary Viswanthan Anand, to win the world championship title. Anand, a five-time world champion, had last won the crown in 2013.
Gukesh secured the requisite 7.5 points as against 6.5 of Liren after winning the last classical time control game of the 14-game match that seemed headed for a draw for most part. Gukesh was visibly emotional after he shaked hands with his opponent Ding. The Indian GM was seen crying. A video of the same has gone viral on social media.
Before Gukesh's feat on Thursday, the legendary Garry Kasparov of Russia was the youngest world chess champion when he won the title at the age of 22, dethroning Anatoly Karpov in 1985. Gukesh had entered the match as the youngest ever challenger to the world crown after winning the Candidates tournament earlier this year.
Coming into the final round of the event both Liren and Gukesh had 6.5 points each. A draw meant the match would have headed for the tie-breaks slated to be held on Thursday. Earlier on Wednesday, the 13th game ended in a draw after 68 moves with Gukesh trying his level best to eke out a win. However, a resilient Liren held the fort and entered the final game as the favourite.
About D Gukesh
D Gukesh was shot to fame when he became the youngest Grandmaster in the history of chess at the age of 12 years and 7 months in 2019. In September 2023, the youngster yet again grabbed the headlines when he surpassed legendary Viswanathan Anand as top-ranked Indian chess player in the rating list. This marked end of Anand's long-standing reign as the top-ranked Indian chess player after 37 years.
