History was made in the small island of Sentosa here on Thursday, as D Gukesh became the youngest world chess champion ever after defeating Ding Liren of China in the final game of their match. The 18-year-old from Chennai broke the record held by the Russian Garry Kasparov for nearly four decades.

With his victory against the defending champion, which came after 58 moves, Gukesh took his points tally to 7.5 points. That was the requirement for a player to win the World title. If the 14th game had ended in a draw, a series of tie-breaker games of speed chess were scheduled to be played on Friday. The game was heading towards a draw in fact, until Ding made a fatal error on the 55th move with his rook. There was no coming back for the Chinese Grandmaster after that.

This was the first-ever World championship match contested by two Asian countries. And it was a match between the players from India and China, the world’s two most populous countries and the continent’s superpowers.

Third Asian to win the championship

Gukesh is only the third Asian to win the World championship. Viswanathan Anand, who is now a mentor for Gukesh, was the first, and Ding the second.

Gukesh is also only the 18th world champion in history, which dates back to 1886. That there have been only 17 undisputed world champions before him puts into perspective the enormity of the achievement.

His campaign had begun on the wrong foot, though. He lost the first game, despite having white pieces (considered slightly advantageous usually). The second game was drawn, and Gukesh won the third to equalise the match at 1.5-1.5.

All the following seven games were drawn. Then Gukesh won the 11th game to take the lead for the first time in the match, but Ding struck back immediately to draw level. That meant the match would go to the bitter end, contrary to the expectations of most top players, who had tipped Gukesh as the clear favourite, based on current form.

By virtue of being the champion, Ding, who defeated Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in last year’s World title match, had booked his flight ticket to Singapore. Gukesh qualified for the World championship by winning the qualifying tournament — the candidates, which was held earlier this year in Toronto.

Played a major role

There were two other Indians in the candidates (R. Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi), as well as two in the women’s event (Koneru Humpy and R. Vaishali). After that, Gukesh went on to play a major role in India’s stunning twin triumph at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.

India’s men’s and women’s teams won the team gold. Only two other countries had done it before — the erstwhile Soviet Union and China.

Gukesh played on the top-board (where every country would usually field its best player) and won the individual gold. Back in 2022, he had clinched the same medal at the Chennai Chess Olympiad, winning an incredible eight games in a row.

That was the turning point in his career.

Published on December 12, 2024