A dream come true: Indian world chess champion thanks Magnus Carlsen
Kyiv • UNN
Gukesh Dommaraju defeated China's Ding Liren and became the youngest world chess champion in history at the age of 18. The Indian prodigy received $2.5 million in prize money and became the second Indian champion after Anand.
An Indian teenager fulfilled his dream of returning the world chess title to India and thanked Mangus Carlsen for winning the championship, UNN reports with reference to Independent.
Details
An Indian prodigy named Gukesh Dommaraju thanked Mangus Carlsen for his victory, which earned him the title of world chess champion. The 18-year-old Dommaraju defeated reigning champion Ding Liren of China in Singapore to become the 18th undisputed world champion in history.
He also became the youngest champion in history, taking the title from Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he won in 1985.
Dommaraju burst into tears after Liren gave his hand in resignation and walked away, shaking his head in disappointment.
After the victory, Dommaraju said that his journey has “just begun” and his goal is to “play at the highest level for as long as possible.
Just because I became world champion doesn't mean I'm the best player in the world. Obviously, there is Magnus Carlsen, and he will always be a motivator for me
At the age of seven, Dommaraju watched Carlsen defeat Viswanathan Anand as world champion. The 2013 match took place in Dommaraju's hometown of Chennai, and the boy was among the spectators.
“I was in the stands and I thought it would be cool to be there one day,” he said.
And when Magnus won, I thought that I really wanted to bring the title back to India, and this dream that I had more than 10 years ago was the most important thing in my life
Dommaraju said it took him a minute to realize his mistake.
At first I didn't see that I was going to win. When I realized I was winning, it was the best moment of my life
This victory made him the second Indian to win the title after Anand.
“This is a moment of pride for chess, a moment of pride for India,” Mr. Anand, the teenager's mentor, wrote on X. ["It's a very personal moment of pride for me.
Congratulations to D. Gukesh on his outstanding achievement. This is the result of his unsurpassed talent, hard work and unwavering determination
Reference
Dommaraju was born in the southern metropolis of Chennai, the chess capital of India. However, he did not come from a family of chess players.
His father is a surgeon and his mother is a professor of medicine.It was only after he was enrolled in chess lessons at school that his talent became apparent, and his coaches urged his family to send him for professional training.
In 2019, he was in high school when he became a chess grandmaster, the third youngest in history.
His victory at the World Championships brought him $2.5 million (£1.96 million) in prize money.
Recall
In October 2024, 67-year-old Lyubov Zhyltsova-Lysenko from Kyiv won the World Chess Championship among visually impaired women in India. She scored the maximum 9 points out of 9 possible, winning her 12th world title.
