India’s grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju celebrates as he wins FIDE World Championship in Singapore on December 12, 2024. — Instagram/@sgchessfed
Teenager Gukesh Dommaraju of India turned the youngest chess world champion by beating defending champion Ding Liren of China on Thursday in a dramatic flip of occasions within the final sport of a 14-game match in Singapore.
The 18th world champion is, at age 18, 4 years youthful than Garry Kasparov, who had been the youngest world champion since 1985 when he beat Anatoly Karpov.
Gukesh gained Thursday’s sport with the black items after Ding wilted underneath strain and blundered in what commentators thought-about to be a snug place, snatching the title with a closing rating of seven.5-6.5.
“I probably got so emotional because I did not really expect to win that position”, Gukesh informed reporters.
Ding, whose type has plummeted since he beat Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi to say the crown in 2023, had not gained a long-time format “classical” sport since January and largely prevented prime occasions in a bid to enhance.
However the Chinese language participant regained confidence after a shock win within the opening spherical of the match and, following two wins for Gukesh and eight attracts, had evened the rating in spherical 12 with a victory which was acclaimed by a number of commentators.
“We all know who Ding is, he has been one of the best players in history for several years”, Gukesh added.
The match was a 14-round long-time “classical” occasion with a prize fund of $2.5 million.
Gukesh had certified in April by profitable the Candidates match, an eight-player, double spherical robin eventfeaturing fellow Indians Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi.
They and their teammates from India gained gold within the open and girls’s sections of the forty fifth Chess Olympiad in Budapest in September, which many professionals attributed to the efforts of former world champion Viswanathan Anand to advertise chess within the nation.
World primary Magnus Carlsen, who had been world champion since 2013, relinquished his title in 2022, citing a scarcity of motivation.
“Becoming the world champion doesn’t mean that I’m the best player in the world, obviously there’s Magnus, so it’s also a motivating factor”, stated Gukesh.
