Rewriting History Gukesh D Becomes World’s Youngest Winner Candidates Tournament.
By: Geetanjali
17 year old Grandmaster (GM) Gukesh D has setted the bar afar by becoming the youngest winner of Candidates chess tournament making his way to the world titles on Monday, April 22, 2024 in Toronto, Canada .
Later this year, he will be competing against the current World champion, 31 year old Ding Liren of China.
17-year-old Indian prodigy 🇮🇳 Gukesh D makes history as the youngest-ever player to win the #FIDECandidates! 🔥
📷 Michal Walusza pic.twitter.com/xyAoRceiTE
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) April 22, 2024
Standings | After Round 14 | #FIDECandidates
🇮🇳 Gukesh D is the winner of the FIDE Candidates with a score of 9/14. pic.twitter.com/BrB7szcpbd
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) April 22, 2024
Continuing the legacy of his mentor at WacaChess and chess GrandMaster Viswanathan Anand, D Gukesh brought back the title after a 26 years halt. With a score of 9/14 against his American counterpart Hikaru Nakamura.
Viswanathan Anand who also hails from chennai, posted his heartfelt congratulations to the chess prodigy through his post on social networking platform X.
Viswanathan posted, “Congratulations to @DGukeshfor for becoming the youngest challenger. The @WacaChess family is so proud of what you have done . I’m personally very proud of how you played and handled tough situations. Enjoy the moment”
Congratulations to @DGukesh for becoming the youngest challenger. The @WacaChess family is so proud of what you have done . I’m personally very proud of how you played and handled tough situations. Enjoy the moment
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) April 22, 2024
After winning, Gukesh said expressing his delightment, “So relieved and so happy. I was following this crazy game (between Fabio Caruan and Ian Nepomniachtchi), and then I went for a walk with my second (Gregorz Gazevsky), I think that helped”.
Hailing from Chennai, Gukesh started his journey to be the chess prodigy at the tender age of seven when he was first introduced to chess at his school. Later he followed formal training of chess, and within six months of his training he was listed as a FIDE rated player.
Later in 2015 he won his first international title of Candidate Master in the U-9 Asian Schools Championship. Subsequently, he went on to win several titles in U-12 chess games.
In 2019 he won the Grand Masters title making him the second youngest GM at the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days. Though the record was later overcome by Abhimanyu Mishra in 2021 making Gukesh the third youngest GM.
