Chess Prodigy Gukesh Crowned Youngest World Champion in History

December 12, 2024
by rajeev
2

India’s D Gukesh has become the youngest chess champion in the world at the age of 18. He defeated Chinese Ding Liren.

Gukeshis India’s youngest grandmaster

Gukesh the youngest-ever winner of the Candidates tournament

Champions

	PLAYERS	DATES	WIN	YEAR WON
1	Wilhelm Steinitz	1886-94	4	1886, 1889, 1890, 1892
2	Emanuel Lasker	1894-1921	6	1894, 1896, 1907, 1908, 1910*, 1910
3	Jose Raul Capablanca	1921-27	1	1921
4	Alexander Alekhine	1927-35, 1937-46	4	1927, 1929, 1934, 1937
5	Max Euwe	1935-37	1	1935
6	Mikhail Botvinnik	1948-57, 1958-60, 1961-63	5	1948t, 1951, 1954, 1958, 1961
7	Vasily Smyslov	1957-58	1	1957
8	Mikhail Tal	1960-61	1	1960
9	Tigran V. Petrosian	1963-69	2	1963, 1966
10	Boris Spassky	1969-72	1	1969
11	Bobby Fischer	1972-75	1	1972
12	Anatoly Karpov	1975-85	3#	1975d, 1978, 1981, 1984#
13	Garry Kasparov	1985-2000	6	1985, 1986, 1987*, 1990, 1993, 1995
14	Vladimir Kramnik	2000-07	3	2000, 2004, 2006*
15	Viswanathan Anand	2007-13	4	2007t, 2008, 2010, 2012**
16	Magnus Carlsen	2013-2023	5	2013, 2014, 2016, 2018, 2021
17	Ding Liren	2023-24	1	2023**
18	Gukesh Dommaraju	2024-present	1	2024

Notes: t – Tournament victory. * – Retained in drawn match. ** – Won in rapid/blitz tiebreaks. # – Leading match when canceled without official result. d – Default.

LEARNING FROM HOME/ WITHOUT CLASSES/ BASICS

The World Chess Championship is the tournament that determines the best player of the world of this sport. The Championship decides the world champion in standard or classical chess. Besides the open World Championship, there also other tournaments designated for different categories. Those are the Women’s World Championship, World Junior Championship, World Senior Championship, World Rapid Championship, and World Blitz Championship.

Only 22 players in the history of chess have held the official title of world champion. 18 of which held the “classical” title. The classical champion decided in a match between the sitting champion and a challenger. It has had a linear progression, with each champion reigning until displaced.