How an Indian teenager became the world’s youngest chess champion

Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju shocked the chess world on Thursday when he became the youngest ever world champion at the age of 18.

The Chennai native defeated the defending champion, Ding Liren of China, in a spectacular match in Singapore that he entered as an opponent. The FIDE World Chess Championship carries a prize fund of $2.5m (£1.96m).

It marked the highest point of his career so far, his biggest moment in a long streak of achievements.

Gukesh became a grandmother at the age of 12 years and seven months and even then, she was telling the truth that she wanted to be a world champion.

In fact, he said he had such desires since he was seven years old when he was a spectator at the World Cup match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen in 2013.

As he admitted in a press conference following his stunning victory over Ding, he didn’t think it would happen so soon.

Gukesh is the 18th world champion since Wilhelm Steinitz won what is considered the first title back in 1886.

Born in May 2006, Gukesh is also, by far, the youngest player to reach this summit.

He bettered the previous record held by Garry Kasparov (born April 1963) who was 22 when he won the title in Moscow in November 1985 by beating Anatoly Karpov.

The 14-match series was tied at two wins apiece after 13 games. It looked like the 14th game was going to be a draw.

In that case, there would be tiebreaks played with shorter time controls.

But Ding made a mistake in the 55th move and Gukesh capitalized on the mistake to claim the title.

Over the past three years, this young player has made a number of amazing achievements, culminating in this victory.

Gukesh has won a gold medal each for best performance in the last two Olympiads. He led India to a bronze medal in Chennai in 2022 and a gold medal in 2024 in Budapest.

He also won the Candidates – a tournament that gave him the right to challenge Ding Liren.

Earlier as a teenager, Gukesh was tipped as a potential challenger by his mentor, former world champion Viswanathan Anand, or “Vishy Sir” as Gukesh calls him. He thought that Gukesh did not have enough knowledge.

Indeed, Gukesh clearly lost midway through the stage, but then rallied to win the next round and eventually took the event.

In the title match Gukesh lost the first game, and tied with a win in the third game, then took the lead in the eleventh game and Ding tied with a win in the 12th game.

Game 14 was obviously high-stakes with the title and $2.5m (£1.98m) prize money at stake, but the youngster controlled his nerves.

Gukesh clearly has an amazing talent but this is not a love story of a lone ranger taking the world by storm. Chennai GM is at the top of the chess ecosystem, one of the best, perhaps the best, in the world.

Gukesh also has a lot of support from his parents, the chess institute in India, and his school.

India has more than 85 grandmothers, most of whom are not yet of driving age.

Indian teams have been successful recently, winning the Open Gold (with Gukesh at the top) and the Women’s gold at the last Olympiad in Budapest.

Those guys are at the top of the pyramid with more than 30,000 rated players, because a large number of Indians play in officially sanctioned tournaments.

Gukesh has been a professional athlete since he was about 10 years old. He is coached by Viswanathan Anand, who is also a five-time world champion.

He is sponsored by Westbridge Capital, which supports the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy, the premier training center owned by Anand.

Gukesh’s parents are both doctors, father Rajinikanth is a surgeon and mother Padma is a microbiologist. Both of them put their jobs in holding to push their son.

Chess becomes an expensive game when the child has to go abroad for several months every year, so his parents not only put their own money to support their son, they also ask friends to help crowd fund Gukesh’s work until it starts.

Importantly, he also received support from his school, Velammal Vidyalaya in Mogappair, which allowed him to take leave.

Gukesh has hobbies outside of chess too – he meditates, swims and plays tennis.

His stated goals are simple – he wants to become the best chess player in the World – replacing the current number one, Magnus Carlsen.

He also wants to have “a very long career at the top”. As he sees it, a title is only one step, albeit a very important one, in that journey of life.