Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju has become the youngest-ever world chess champion after beating defending champion China’s Ding Liren in a dramatic turn on Thursday.
Dommaraju, at age 18, is four years younger than Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov was when he won the title in 1985 at age 22.
The Chennai prodigy has long been a superstar in the chess world, having attained the status of chess grandmaster at the age of 12.
Playing on black, Dommaraju won the game after an under-pressure Ding made a rare mistake while in a solid position, game commentators observed.
Both players had two victories apiece and eight draws going into the final game on Thursday.
In a stunning upset on Thursday, Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju defeated China’s Ding Liren, the reigning champion, to become the youngest-ever world chess champion.
Garry Kasparov, the Russian grandmaster who won the title in 1985 at the age of 22, was four years older than Dommaraju, who is now eighteen.
At the age of twelve, the Chennai prodigy became a chess grandmaster, solidifying his reputation as a chess superstar.
However, he was considered the challenger heading into this year’s FIDE World Chess Championship final in Singapore.
Game commentators noted that Dommaraju, playing on black, won the match after a Ding, under pressure, made an uncommon error while in a strong position.
Chess fans around the world had been closely following the pair’s games for the past two weeks, but the 18-year-old ended the two weeks with a final score of 7.5-6.5 to win the title.
Since taking home the 2023 championship, Ding had been under pressure to improve his form all year.
The Chinese player was observed avoiding other elite tournaments and hadn’t won a long-format “classical” match since January.
However, he had shown momentum by winning the second-to-last match against Dommaraju and playing a solid opening game.
When the final game took place on Thursday, both players had eight draws and two wins each.
After hours of close play, Dommaraju was able to take advantage of Ding’s move 55, which moved his rook to a position that was fatally weak.
Ding slumped on the table as soon as he realized his error.
As stated in its post-game summary, “Ding appeared to have a risk-free opportunity to push for a win but instead liquidated into a pawn-down endgame.”. “Ding made a mistake as the pressure increased, even though it should have been drawn. “.
