Seventeen-year-old Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh became the youngest challenger to win the Candidates Chess Tournament world title. Gukesh will take on reigning world champion Ding Liren of China for the title later this year, PTI reported.
Drawing his final round, Gukesh gathered nine out of 14 points against his American opponent Hikaru Nakamura. He became the second Indian to the Candidates tournament after Viswanathan Anand, who won the tournament in 2014.
Following Gukesh's victory, Anand posted on X, "Congratulations to @DGukesh for becoming the youngest challenger. The @WacaChess family is so proud of what you have done. I'm personally very proud of how you played and handled tough situations. Enjoy the moment," congratulating him.
Gukesh needed the last game between Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia and top-seeded American Fabiano Caruana to end in a draw, and it happened. Had any of these two players won, the tournament would have needed a tie-break as Gukesh and the winner would have ended up in joint lead.
Gukesh has been making waves for a while now after becoming the third youngest in chess history to earn the Grandmaster title at the age of 12. Last year, he won a silver medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games.
The dates and venue for the world championship are yet to be finalised, PTI reported.