Brave, resourceful and young: At 18, this big-match player rules the world

"Zero minutes." In the middle of a crowded minibus, on the way to a photoshoot, the new world champion of 64 squares wears a gentle smile as he says these words.

- Rohit Brijnath

It's Friday morning and Gukesh Dommaraju's grandparents have arrived from India, his uncle, his aunt, and as he points them out to The Straits Times he talks about Thursday night.

About what happened after he won chess' grandest title.

"I did not not sleep (at night) at all."

Not a minute.

Victory is the finest tonic. But maybe it's also just young people, who after roughly 60 cumulative hours of combat don't sleep for even one. But then the young are startling. They're brave, resourceful, able to shrug off the weight of history and eat pressure like it's a snack. They don't believe in the patronising view that they are the future. The present will do nicely.

The young put down their school books and go tame the world. Boris Becker, the youngest male Wimbledon winner at 17. Lydia Ko, women's golf's youngest Major winner at 18. Max Verstappen, the youngest to win a Grand Prix at 18. Now Gukesh, 18, sits with them, refuting the notion that brains fully develop in the mid-20s. The idea that a purely thinking game requires experience has politely been dustbinned by the kid from Chennai.