D Gukesh becomes youngest-ever Chess World Champion

18-year-old Indian chess Grandmaster Dommaraju Gukesh has become the youngest-ever GM to win the World Championship on Thursday.

Gukesh defeated reigning World Champion Ding Liren in the 14th and final game of the World Chess Championship 2024 to claim the title with a scoreline of 7.5-6.5.

With this victory, the Indian tennager is now just second Indian to win the title after legendary Vishwanathan Anand.

He also surpassed Garry Kasparov as the youngest World Champion.

With both players tied at 6.5-6.5 before the last game, it looked like the title race was heading towards a tie-breaker with game 14 heading to a draw until Ding blundered in last his couple of moves.

The errors gave an opening to Gukesh who capitalized to put an end to a battle of three weeks and create history by bringing back the title to India after Vishwanathan Anand.

"I am living my dream. Since I started playing chess at the age of six, I have been dreaming of becoming a World Champion," Gukesh quipped in the press conference after winning the World title.

D Gukesh is having the best year of his career.

He won the FIDE Candidates earlier this year, led India to a Chess Olympiad title, and now finishes the year as the youngster-ever World Champion.