Checkde India! Teen prodigy Dommaraju Gukesh becomes youngest world chess champion

King's Gambit: D Gukesh checkmates China's Ding Liren to become 18th World chess champ at 18, the 1st teen ever - breaking Kasparov's record (22 yrs) - and 2nd Indian after Vishy Anand as heading for draw, defending champ buckles
Caissa, the chess goddess, smiled on D Gukesh on Thursday. He thanked her in return. The world championship crown, the one Magnus Carlsen took away from Viswanathan Anand in Chennai in 2013, is returning to India - the birthplace of chess.
At 18, Gukesh is the youngest world champion the chess world has ever seen, the first teenager to wear the crown. Garry Kasparov, who held the record till Thursday evening, was 22 when he ascended the throne in 1985.
When Ding Liren blundered in a seemingly equal and drawable position in the 14th and last game of the World Chess Championship in Singapore, Gukesh, the challenger, realised he would be the new monarch of the 64-square game.
The World No. 5 could not hide his excitement and emotions. He smiled, covered his face and uncorked a winning move. Three moves later, Ding resigned to hand over the crown he held after beating Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi via tiebreaks in Astana, Kazakhstan, last year.
"I knew I could play on this game for 5-6 hours, but I was mentally prepared for tomorrow's tiebreaks," said Gukesh.
Indeed, Ding was not expected to crack in this position - rook and light-squared bishop each with Gukesh having an extra pawn (2 vs 1). But the stage and time-pressure got to him as he played the only move on the 55th turn - without much provocation - which would end in a loss. Hence, it was no surprise that Gukesh first thanked the almighty after his moment of triumph.
Ding had told chess24 on the eve of the last game that he was prepared for a long haul. But despite having white pieces and getting a decent position out of the opening, he was lured to play for the draw following Gukesh's 18th move (pawn to b5) after fearing for the worse without much reason.

'Gukesh's face told me I had just made a blunder'
Being the champion does not mean I am the best player in the world," said Gukesh. "It's motivating that someone (Magnus Carlsen) is at a very, very high level. That will help me to continue working hard."
Carlsen has withdrawn from the World Championship cycle that had helped Ding enter the fray last year. The five-time world champion had cited lack of motivation in classical time control and skewed 'effort vs reward ratio' for it.
Thursday's game was heading towards a draw, and the match towards rapid tiebreaks. Considering Ding's experience and higher rating in shorter time controls, he was seen as the favourite in that phase.
Finally, that was thrown out of the window much to the relief of the players as Gukesh won with a scoreline of 7.5-6.5 points. Gukesh won in 58 moves of Reti Opening, Kings Indian Attack variation from black pieces.
Despite the path-breaking achievement, Gukesh did not lose his bearings. When Ding left the playing arena, Gukesh wept tears of joy but did not forget to rearrange his pieces and that of his opponent. He also bowed in front of the chess board before leaving the stage. In a show of great appreciation for his rival, Gukesh stood up when Ding was set to leave after finishing his part of the press conference and shook his hand. Till Ding left the hall, Gukesh was clapping for the Chinese.
So, where did Ding go wrong? The Chinese brought his rook on the f2 square without realising that the rook exchange at that point would put cold water on all the resilience he had shown in this entire match. The 32-year-old Chinese's bishop was trapped on the 'a8' square, limited to just one diagonal. Plus, Gukesh's bishop was not only in a position to attack the rival's bishop but even his king was adjacent to complete even the bishop exchange followed by the rook exchange. And then with only two pawns vs one pawn remaining on the board, the situation was completely winning for Gukesh with more than an hour remaining on his clock.
Ding said after the loss, "Gukesh's face told me that I had just made the blunder. I was totally shocked. It was already not easy to draw the game. Maybe I just needed to wait (show patience). No game tomorrow. This tournament was my best performance of the year." It underlined his overall struggle and how he raised his game in Singapore with wins in the first and 12th game after losing the third and 11th game. "Considering yesterday's lucky escape (a draw in the 13th game), it's a fair result. I have no regrets."