World Championship 2024: Indian Grandmaster D. Gukesh made history on Thursday by becoming the youngest World Chess Champion at just 18 years old. He defeated China’s Ding Liren in the 14th and final game of the championship. Gukesh secured 7.5 points compared to Liren’s 6.5 points by winning this last classical time control game, which had been leaning towards a draw for most of the match. With this victory, he will receive a significant prize of $2.5 million. Before Gukesh’s achievement, the record for the youngest World Champion was held by Russian legend Garry Kasparov, who won the title at 22 years old in 1985 by defeating Anatoly Karpov. Gukesh entered this championship as the youngest challenger after winning the Candidates Tournament earlier this year. He is now the second Indian to win a global title, following the legendary Viswanathan Anand. Anand, a five-time World Champion, last held the title before losing to Magnus Carlsen in 2013. Gukesh, who won the decisive 14th game after 58 moves in just four hours, is officially the 18th World Chess Champion. If Thursday’s game had ended in a draw, the winner would have been determined in a shorter tie-break match on Friday. Before this final game, Gukesh had already won in the third and eleventh rounds, while the 32-year-old** Liren had victories in the first and twelfth games. All other games in the match ended in draws.
