Chennai, Dec 12,2024:Indian Challenger D Gukesh dethroned reigning Chinese champion Ding Liren by winning the 14th and final round of the FIDE World Chess Championship in Singapore on Thursday evening.
It was a proud moment in Indian sporting history, as Gukesh, at the age of 18, was crowned the youngest ever World Classical Chess champion.
Gukesh has become the youngest winner of the tournament at the age of 17.
D Gukesh defeated Dang Liren in a nail-biting Game 14 of the finals to become the youngest-ever World Chess Championship (WCC) winner in Singapore on Thursday.
It was the final encounter of the summit clash before the match would have proceeded to rapid tie-breakers.
Gukesh held black whereas Liren was playing with white in the title decider. The game had entered its fifth hour as Liren began exerting pressure on Gukesh’s advancing bishop.
There was, however, a long pause before the 13th move by Gukesh and he ended up recreating his bishop as his chances in the final resulted in a critical situation.
Liren pounced upon the situation to sway the game back in his favour in the 17th move, re-introducing his knight and then launching a counter-attack with his black square bishop. He then offered Gukesh a trade-off for the queen. Gukesh accepted the offer, thus pushing the game into tie-breakers, whereas Liren was looking to settle for a draw.
The match then entered an interesting phase, with both sides refusing to concede even an inch. Liren committed a massive blunder in the 55th move, as he moved his rook to f2. Gukesh was quick to spot and capitalise upon the same, and turned the match into a king-and-pawn match, accepting the loss and resigning to the Indian Grandmaster thereafter.
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.
He is the second Indian after the legendary Viswanathan Anand to win the global title. Anand, a five-time world champion, had last won the crown in 2013.
