Gukesh Dommaraju, Chennai  (India) born prodigy, defeated defending champion China’s Ding Liren to become the youngest ever world champion in Singapore at the age of 18. The 14-game match was tied with two wins each after 13 games and looked as through the 14^th game was heading towards a draw. Gukesh born in May 2006, playing black, won from a dead-drawn position in the final contest of their best of 14 games when Ding unexpectedly made a blunder on move 55 by trapping his own bishop with his rook. Gukesh entered the FIDE World Chess Championship as a challenger which carries a £1.96m ($2.5m) prize fund. Gukesh became a grandmaster aged 12 and seven months, and when he was seven he was spectator at a World Title match between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen in 2013.

Gukesh is the 18^th world champion since Wilhelm Steinitz won what is considered the first title match way back in 1886.

He comfortably improved upon the prior record held by Garry Kasparov (born April 1963) who was 22 when he won the title in Moscow in November 1985 after beating Anatoly Karpov.

Gukesh  who lost the first game, and equalised with a win in game three, then took the lead in game eleven which Ding equalised with a win in game 12. He also won the individual gold medal for performance in the last two Olympiads, as he led India to a team bronze at Chennai in 2022 and the gold medal in 2024 in Budapest. India has over 85 grandmasters, many of whom are not yet of driving age. Gukesh whose parents are both doctors, father Rajnikanth a surgeon and mother Padma a Microbiologist, is sponsored by Westbridge Capital which supports Westbridge Anand Chess Academy, a premier coaching centre run by Anand. Gukesh mediates, swims and plays tennis when he is not playing chess.