Chennai boy D Gukesh crowned World’s Youngest Chess Champion

18-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju, or D.Gukesh of Chennai, defeated the Chinese Grandmaster (GM) Ding Liren to become the youngest FIDE World Chess Champion. D.Gukesh broke the record of the legendary Russian chess player Gary Kasparov, who became the world champion at the age of 22 years in 1985 after beating fellow Russian Anatoly Karpov.

The FIDE World Chess Championship is played in the classical chess format, and the first contestant to win 7.5 points is crowned the world champion.

D. Gukesh won the FIDE World Chess Championship by 7.5 points, compared to Ding Liren's 6.5 points.

Second Indian and 18th person to become World Chess Champion

D.Gukesh is the 18th chess player to be crowned FIDE World Chess Champion. He is also the second Indian to become the world chess champion after Viswanathan Anand.

Viswanathan Anand became the 15th chess player to become a world chess champion in 2007. He later won the title in 2008,2010 and 2012. 

About the 2024 World Chess Championship Finalist

32-year-old Ding Liren is the first Chinese chess player to win the world chess championship. In 2023, he defeated Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi to win the chess championship.

Ding Liren is also the highest-rated Chinese chess player.

18-year Gukesh Dommaraju became the third youngest chess Grandmaster in history at the age of 12 years and seven months.

He qualified for the 2024 FIDE World Chess Championship by winning the FIDE Candidate Tournament in Toronto, Canada.

He became the youngest challenger in the history of the FIDE World Chess Championship.

Venue and host of the 2024 FIDE World Chess Championship 

The 2024 FIDE World Chess Championship was organised by the world chess governing body, the International Chess Federation, known by its French acronym FIDE, and it was hosted by the Singapore Chess Federation.

It was held at the luxurious Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore.

The Championship was held from  23 November to 15 December 2024. But the Championship ended on 12 December 2024 as D.Gukesh was the first player to win 7.5 points to win the title.

Prize Money for D.Gukesh

The total prize money for the 2024 FIDE World Championship was $2.5 million. Each victory in the championship games fetched the victor $200,000.

Gukesh's three wins got him $600,000, while Ding Liren, with two wins, got $ 400,000.

The remaining $1.5 million was split between Gukesh and Ding.

Thus, Gukesh got a prize of $1.35 million.

World Chess Champions 

Twenty-two players have held the official world chess championship title, and 18 of them have held the ‘classical chess’ world title.

In 1886, Wilhelm Steinitz became the first official world chess champion. Since 1948, the World Chess Championship has been organised by FIDE.

Later, there was a split in world chess, with many players led by Gary Kasparov refusing to participate in the FIDE world chess championship from 1993-2006. 

Again, in 2007, the chess world was united, and since then, all the top chess players have taken part in the FIDE World Chess Championship played in the classical format.