Checkmate!

I was going to press it for as long as I could possibly press, but I thought, 'It's OK. We are going to play for five, six hours. It's going to end in a draw, and let's focus on the tiebreaks.' But then suddenly after Rf2, I saw [the game] was actually done. I was already preparing myself to go through that huge tiebreak fight and suddenly it was all over and I had achieved my dream. I'm not someone who shows a lot of emotions, but I think this one can be forgiven."

- Gukesh D

Eighteen-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju capped a stunning ascent to the pinnacle of chess by dethroning China's Ding Liren to become the youngest-ever world champion recently in Singapore.

The teenager from Chennai dramatically snatched the decisive victory from a dead-drawn position in the final contest of their best-of-14-games showdown when Ding made one of the worst blunders in the 138-year history of world championship matchplay.

The 32-year-old defending champion resigned moments later after a game that lasted 58 moves and just over four hours, sealing Gukesh's 7½-6½ win in the three-week match and rendering moot the widely expected prospect of tie-breaker matches on the fateful day.

In doing so, Gukesh shattered the age record held by Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he toppled Anatoly Karpov in 1985.

He also became the second Indian to win the global title after the legendary Viswanathan Anand, a five-time world champion. He had last won the crown in 2013.

A game that appeared bound for a peaceful result suddenly became complicated when Ding sacrificed a pawn in exchange for a simpler position. That left Gukesh with no choice but to fight on and he was more than happy to punish his foe in a grueling endgame under mounting time pressure and that's when Ding finally cracked.

"It took some time to realize it," Ding later said. Gukesh admitted he didn't initially recognize Ding's rook move as a blunder, saying it took a few seconds to spot that his opponent's bishop was trapped. He could barely conceal his excitement upon the discovery, while a devastated Ding could only bury his head in his hands.