Over the last three years the young player has made a string of extraordinary achievements, culminating in this victory.
Gukesh won the individual gold medal for best performance in the last two Olympiads. He led India to a team bronze at Chennai in 2022 and the gold medal in 2024 in Budapest.
He also won the Candidates – the tournament that earned him the right to challenge Ding Liren.
Earlier in his teens, Gukesh was ruled out as a prospective challenger by his mentor, the former world champion Viswanathan Anand, or “Vishy Sir” as Gukesh calls him. He thought Gukesh simply didn’t have enough experience.
Indeed, Gukesh suffered an apparently catastrophic loss at the midway stage, but then he pulled himself together to win in the next round and eventually took the event.
In the title match Gukesh lost the first game, and equalised with a win in game three, he then took the lead in game eleven and Ding equalised with a win in game 12.
Game 14 was obviously high-tension with the title and a prize fund at stake, but the teenager controlled his nerves.
Gukesh is obviously an extraordinary talent but this is not the romantic story of a lone ranger surprising the world. The Chennai GM is at the apex of a robust chess ecosystem, which is one of the best, perhaps the best, in the world.
