The Indian Gukesh Dommaraju, just 18 years old, beat the Chinese Ding Liren in the last classic game between the two, with the black pieces, and became the 2024 World Chess Champion.
In addition to bringing the title back to India – Viswanathan Anand held the title between 2007 and 2013 – Gukesh also broke the record for the youngest world champion in history.
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How was the 2024 World Chess Championship?
In the first match, held on November 25, China’s Ding Liren overcame Gukesh’s favoritism and won the first match. After a draw in the second game, Gukesh tied the match by winning the third duel.
The chess players then drew seven consecutive games until game ten, when Gukesh won and put himself ahead on the scoreboard. In game 12, however, Ding won and left everything the same again.
Game 13, the penultimate, ended in a draw, leaving everything to the last game. In the 14th duel, the game remained quite balanced until the 55th move, when Ding miscalculated an exchange of rooks and left the victory in the hands of Gukesh, who confirmed the title three moves later with a final score of 7.5 points to 6.5 – each victory gives one point and a draw gives 0.5 points to each chess player.
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Who is Gukesh Dommaraju?
Gukesh Dommaraju, known as Gukesh D, was born on May 29, 2006, in the city of Chennai, India. The young man started playing chess at the age of seven and began to attract attention during tournaments held on weekends.
In 2015, the Indian won the under-9 Asian School Chess Championship and the under-12 World Youth Chess Championship. In 2017, he proved himself to be an International Master, the last step before becoming a Grand Master.
In 2018, he won five gold medals at the under-12 Asian Youth Chess Championship, winning the individual rapid and blitz, team rapid and blitz and individual classic categories.
In 2019, at just 12 years, seven months and 17 days, Gukesh became the second youngest Grandmaster in chess history. Russian Sergey Karjakin remained the record holder for just 17 days.
In 2022, he played in the Chess Olympiad and won the individual gold medal, with the Indian team taking the team bronze. In September of the same year, he surpassed the 2700 points mark, the third youngest in history to achieve the mark, behind only the Chinese Wei Yi and the Iranian Alireza Firouzja.
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In October 2022, he became the youngest chess player to beat Magnus Carlsen, world number 1, since the Norwegian became world champion.
In 2023, he continued breaking records, becoming the youngest chess player in the world to break the 2800 points barrier. In the Chess World Cup, however, he was defeated by Magnus in the quarterfinals.
In 2024, he became the third youngest athlete to compete in the Candidates Tournament, behind only the legendary American Bobby Fischer and Magnus Carlsen. The Candidates Tournament decides who will be the challenger for the title of World Chess Champion.
During the tournament, he overcame his opponents and became the youngest in history to win the Candidates. After the competition, he also competed in the Chess Olympiad, leading India to the gold medal with teams and with a performance of 3056 points, the highest in the history of the tournament.
Now, with the title of World Chess Champion, he has become the youngest person to hold the achievement.
What is the prize pool for the 2024 World Chess Championship?
The total prize pool for the tournament is 2.5 million dollars. Each player will win 200 thousand dollars – approximately R$1.157 million reais – for each victory and the rest of the money will be divided equally between the players. If the match goes to tiebreakers, the winner will receive 1.3 million dollars, with the runner-up earning 1.2 million dollars.
Who are the greatest world chess champions?
21 different players have held the title of world chess champions. German Emanuel Lasker and Russians Garry Kasparov and Anatoly Karpov each have six title defenses. Next come the Russian Mikhail Botvinnik and the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, with five defenses each. Carlsen, still active, could continue competing in the Chess World Cup, but gave up the title in 2022.
