Chess: 17-year-old Indian could become youngest world champion winner since Kasparov

L'Indien Gukesh (à droite) connaît une ascension fulgurante. XinHua – Sylvia Lederer

At 17, Indian Gukesh qualified to challenge world chess champion Ding Liren.

The Indian grandmaster Gukesh won the Candidates tournament in Toronto (Canada) on the night of Sunday to Monday, which gives him the opportunity to face the reigning world champion and become the youngest chess king.

Thanks to his draw against the American Hikaru Nakamura and that between the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi and the American Fabiano Caruana in another game, the Indian player, 16th player in the world during the last ranking, finished alone in the lead after the fourteen games played since the beginning of April, half a point ahead of these three other players.

At 17, he therefore won the right to face the Chinese Ding Liren, current holder of the world crown, in a match which should take place later in the year but at a date and place to be defined.

A victory that would make him history

In the event of victory, a credible hypothesis because the Chinese seems out of shape since his coronation in April  2023, he would erase from the shelves the Russian Garry Kasparov, world champion for the first time at 22 years old of the most prestigious chess format.

The Russian Ruslan Ponomariov won the Fide world championship at the age of 18 in 2002, but two world titles competed at the time and the most important was held by Garry Kasparov.

Dommaraju Gukesh, "Gukesh D" in the world of chess, was born on May 29, 2006 and, a month before his 18th birthday, was already the youngest of the tournament which brought together eight of the best players in the world throughout the month to designate the challenger for the world title .

A meteoric rise

Fighting for the first places from the start, he took sole control thanks to his victory on the penultimate day against the Franco-Iranian Alireza Firouzja. Firouzja was the only one to beat him during the tournament, in the first phase, but he finished second to last in the end.

The Indian player continues his meteoric rise, after obtaining his grandmaster standard, the highest distinction in chess, at just 12 years old, in 2019 and his first international standard in 2015.

In August 2023, he became the youngest player to exceed 2750 elo points, the chess points system, before reaching the best rank of his career, 8th in the world at autumn. He should appear in 6th place in the next ranking, established on May 1, according to provisional estimates, just ahead of Ding Liren.