THE STEADFAST TEEN KING

As an 8-year-old in 2013, Gukesh says, he wanted to be the one to bring the World Chess Championship crown back to India

- Shahid Judge

Gukesh Dommaraju took a moment to collect his thoughts, as he looked back at a memory from 11 years ago. He recited the details about how he sat in the audience, watching Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand competing against Magnus Carlsen for the 2013 World Chess Championship title in Chennai.

"When I was in the stands, looking inside the glass box, I thought it would be so cool to be inside one day," Gukesh, the world chess champion, said in the post-match press conference of the 2024 World Championship in Singapore. "When Magnus won, I wanted to be the one to bring back the title to India. This dream that I had more than 10 years ago has been the single most important thing in my life so far...and now that now that this is not just a dream but reality, it feels I think that 8-year-old kid would be really happy." On Thursday, Gukesh achieved just that. Beating defending champion Ding Liren in the final game of the contest, the 18-year-old from Chennai became India's second world champion in classical chess, and the youngest-ever to win the coveted crown.

Once Ding resigned, the usually stoic Gukesh burst into tears as the weight of his achievement sank in. "I got emotional because I did not expect to win from that position," he said.

"I thought we will play for five-six hours and it will be a draw. I was already preparing myself to go through the huge tiebreak fight and suddenly I saw the chance. Suddenly it was all over and I achieved my dream."