D Gukesh becomes the World Chess Champion
18-year-old Indian GM Gukesh Dommaraju is the world champion after the defending title holder GM Ding Liren (32) from China collapsed in game 14 of the 2024 FIDE World Championship. Gukesh's First Reaction After Becoming Champion Gukesh won 7.5-6.5, taking $1.35 million , after a game where Ding seemed to have a risk-free chance to press for a win but instead liquidated into a pawn-down endgame. It was objectively drawn, but Gukesh kept pushing and Ding blundered as the pressure grew. Gukesh called it "probably the best moment of my life" when he realized he'd fulfilled a childhood dream. Gukesh Beats Ding To Win World Championship The moment Gukesh became the 18th world champion The 14th and final classical game of the world championship match in Singapore seemed to be fizzling out into a draw, which would have meant nerve-wracking rapid tiebreaks on Friday. The game had followed many of the patterns we'd seen previously in the match. ...