Gutsy Gukesh becomes youngest world chess champion

Singapore, Dec 12: Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh on Thursday became the youngest world chess champion at 18 years after beating title-holder Ding Liren in the last game of a roller-coaster showdown, heralding a new era of dominance for the country’s chess players and taking forward the incredible legacy of the great Viswanathan Anand.

Gukesh became only the second Indian to clinch the title after Anand, who owned the prestigious crown five times in his career. After settling into “semi-retirement”, the 55-year-old Anand, incidentally, played a pivotal role in shaping Gukesh at his chess academy in Chennai.

Gukesh secured the requisite 7.5 points as against 6.5 of his Chinese rival after winning the 14th and last classical time control game of the match that seemed headed for a draw for most part. As title winner, he will get USD 1.3 million from 2.5 million prize purse.

“I was dreaming this moment for the last 10 years. I am happy that I realised the dream (and made it) into reality,” the soft-spoken Chennai-lad told reporters after the historic triumph here. “I got a bit emotional because I was not expecting to win. But then I got a chance to press on,” he added.

The reticent teenager grinned widely and raised his arms in celebration after the triumph, a stark contrast from the poker face he usually sports while playing.

Even on Thursday, when the analysts had proclaimed that the match, in all likelihood, would go into a tie-breaker, Gukesh’s face hardly gave anything away as he gained the upper-hand.

It was a momentary lapse of concentration by Liren in what seemed a drawn endgame and as it happened, the entire chess world was left in a state of shock.

The players were just left with a rook and a bishop and Gukesh had two pawns against one trying to make a foray without much success.

However, the ability to keep pushing for more gave Gukesh a distinct advantage over the Chinese and the latter simply collapsed to give the title to Gukesh.

Before Gukesh’s feat on Thursday, the legendary Garry Kasparov of Russia was the youngest world 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.

“Every chess player wants to live this dream. I am living my dream,” said Gukesh.

Gukesh, who won the 14th game against Liren after 58 moves in four hours, is the 18th world chess champion overall.

If Thursday’s game was also drawn, winner was to be decided in shorter duration tie-breaks on Friday.