On Thursday, Dec. 12th, Gukesh Dommaraju won the World Chess Championship at just eighteen years old—the youngest player ever to do so.
As an avid follower of chess, Gukesh first came under my radar during his performance in the 2022 44th Chess Olympiad. Modeled after the Olympics, this tournament involves teams of players representing the same country playing others. It was hosted in India, and Gukesh was part of the second India team, where he played on “board one,” or the board on which the best player of each time plays on, meaning Gukesh was facing the toughest opponents. Despite this, he had an incredible run, scoring an incredible 8/8 in the first rounds of the tournament and finishing with 9 points out of a possible 11. In the eighth round, he defeated then-number-two Fabiano Caruana representing the United States, who is widely considered the second-best classical player in the world after Magnus Carlsen. With his performance, he earned an individual gold medal and helped secure bronze for the team. Around this time, another young Indian boy actually had the attention of the media: Praggnanandhaa (“Pragg”) Rameshbabu. He earned all the attention by defeating Magnus Carlsen and becoming the youngest to do so since Magnus became World Champion. However, I was more interested in Gukesh’s career since, oh, I forgot to mention, he was only 16 at this time. Gukesh later broke his compatriot’s record.
Thanks to other tournament successes in 2023, including advancing to the quarterfinals of the Chess World Cup and winning the Chennai Grand Masters, he qualified for the Candidates tournament through the FIDE Circuit, FIDE being the governing body of chess. The FIDE circuit is a measure of a player’s tournament success, where players earn points by placing. Gukesh was now second in the circuit to Fabiano Caruana, but since Caruana had already qualified, Gukesh got the spot instead. The Candidates tournament is an eight-player, double round-robin tournament between the strongest players in the world who qualified via the (rather complicated) rules that FIDE issues.
The 2024 Candidates was a particularly special tournament since the chess world recognized that the reigning World Chess Champion, Ding Liren, was not in form. After growing bored with the current format, which intrinsically involves lots of memorization, Magnus Carlsen chose not to defend his title in 2021, leading the winner of that year’s Candidates to instead play the runner-up. These players were Ian Nepomniatchi—who had an incredible performance in those Candidates and actually won it the previous year as well—and Ding Liren, also an extremely strong player. Ding ended up winning in a match that went well into the tiebreaks, but afterward, he seemed to disappear. When he did turn up to play, it was very poor relative to his previous level. Everyone knew that if they were to win the 2024 Candidates, they would have a very solid chance of becoming the Champion.
At first, all eyes were on Ian Nepomniatchi, known for his incredible performances in past Candidates; Fabiano Caruana; Hikaru Nakamura, a chess streamer who happens to be quite good; the three Indians, including Pragg; and Alireza Firouzja, a young Frenchman who, the previous time, Carlsen stated was the only person he’d consider defending the title against. As it turned out, by the last round, it had become a four-horse race, where Hikaru, Fabiano, Nepomniatchi, and Gukesh all had a shot at winning. Furthermore, as if scripted, they were all playing each other. If Gukesh drew Hikaru, he would guarantee at least a tie for first place, while Hikaru needed a win. If Ian and Fabiano drew, it would be over with Gukesh as the winner, but if one were to win, they’d be in the same position as Gukesh. Alas, as the game progressed, Fabiano seemed to be crushing Ian. Until he wasn’t. Somehow, he had blundered into a draw, leading to one of the most heartbreaking clips in chess history as Ian apologized, “I’m sorry.” Fabi replied only, “My fault.”
With Gukesh and Hikaru having drawn hours earlier, and Gukesh, having seen the state of their game, already started preparing for the tiebreak, Gukesh was the new challenger. At seventeen, he was the youngest player to win the Candidates.
After this, Gukesh continued to improve, reaching a peak ranking of No. 5 in the world. And he still had one major tournament victory left before the championship: the 45th Chess Olympiad. This time, Gukesh played on board one for the only India team—they only had multiple players the previous time since they were the host country. Somehow, he put on an even better performance than before, finishing with 9/10 and again beating Fabiano Caruana. His performance rating—a calculation based only on one tournament’s games—was 3056. For reference, Magnus is currently rated 2831. With his performance, he again won individual gold, but also team gold for India.
Finally, it was time for the 14-game World Championship. Going into it, the record between the two was 2.5-1.5 in Ding’s favor, but since Gukesh won the Candidates, many of the game’s top players, past and present, had given their predictions. Overwhelmingly Gukesh was a favorite in light of his recent success and Ding’s drop in performance. That made for all the more surprise when Ding beat him with the black pieces in Game 1. Chess is a very drawish game, and white goes first, so there’s an inherent advantage there. Magnus Carlsen’s father did say something before the match, however, that helps explain the result: “When you play your first game in your first world championship match, you cannot be prepared.”
In Game 3, Gukesh was able to bounce back with the white pieces, tying the score. Then, a series of draws. Finally, on the day of Game 6, as I woke up to check the score, I was confused not to see one. In CST, the games start at 3:00 AM, meaning by the time I’m awake they’re over. However, as I clicked on the game, I was delighted to see the evaluation bar read Massively Better for Gukesh. Eagerly, I watched the game as I ate breakfast and brushed my teeth. At one point, Ding spent 20 minutes thinking about a single move, a simple pawn push which seemed unremarkable but was actually the best one. Still, the idea was unclear, even to GM-level commentators who were surprised by the poor time usage. Then, Gukesh made a couple of mistakes, and Ding played quickly, and it turns out that move had managed to save the game for him.
Games 8, 9 and 10 were all draws as well, but Gukesh managed another win in Game 11. Being +1 with only three games to go, everyone had high hopes for Gukesh. Until Ding won the very next game.
It was now Game 13. Another draw. In Game 14, Ding had the white pieces. Throughout the match, Ding had always seemed to play as if he wanted a draw, especially with the white pieces when it was easier. This strategy especially made sense because if the match was still tied after all fourteen games, they would move on to faster games, where each player would have less time. This format, known as “Rapid” (or, if they were tied after that, the even faster format of Blitz) was known to favor Ding since, according to Carlsen himself, Gukesh relied heavily on his calculation and did not have the highest level of intuition. Halfway through Game 14, it seemed to be very close to a draw. Near the end, however, Ding had made a couple of questionable decisions that led to a game that was still drawn, but Gukesh had a more comfortable position with winning chances. Instead of a one-result game of a dead draw, it was now a two-result game: Gukesh wins or they draw. Still, given the calibre of the players, it should be a draw.
After several hours of a relatively boring, draw-ish position, Ding made a fatal error. By offering a trade of rooks, Gukesh could take it and forcefully trade off the bishops, then place his king in a commanding position known as the opposition. After staring at the board in disbelief (in turn, causing Ding to stare in disbelief) Gukesh followed this plan and became the youngest World Champion in chess history.
