New Delhi: Five-time World Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand shared an old picture with the youngest and current World Chess Champion D Gukesh and captioned the post ‘the boy who would be king’.
Gukesh made history on Thursday by becoming the youngest-ever World Champion in chess, beating Ding Liren of China in the 14-game match in Singapore. The 18-year-old from Chennai capitalised on a blunder by Ding in the winner-takes-all 14th game to dethrone the reigning champion, winning the match 7.5 to 6.5 to become only the second Indian to win the World Chess Championship.
On Thursday, Anand congratulated the teenager on his historic success and termed it a proud moment for India and chess.
“Congratulations! It’s a proud moment for chess, a proud moment for India, a proud moment for WACA, and for me, a very personal moment of pride. Ding played a very exciting match and showed the champion he is,” Anand wrote on X.
By beating Ding, Gukesh became the 18th World Champion in the over century-long history of chess and the youngest after beating Garry Kasparov’s record of winning the title at the age of 21 and heralding the arrival of a new king on the chess horizon.
Gukesh became the second Indian to win the World Chess Championship, claiming the title in just over a decade after five-time Champion Viswanathan Anand had lost the title to Magnus Carlsen of Norway in Chennai in 2013. Carlsen has abdicated the crown in 2023, paving the way for Ding to beat Ian Nepomniachtchi.
Having battled it out for 13 games over three weeks, Ding was looking forward to the rapid and blitz tiebreakers as he had effectively countered the aggressive tactics of the young Indian challenger to steer the game towards a drawish position. But the 32-year-old Chinese made a sensational blunder when he moved his rook for his bishop to be trapped and eventually lost the game.
(IANS)
