Gukesh Dommaraju, just 17 years old, won the FIDE Candidates Tournament in Toronto. This year he will become the youngest player in history to play against China’s Ding Liren for the world championship title.
The end of the three-week tournament was exciting: the American Fabiano Caruana was unable to get a winning position against the Russian Jan Nepomnyashchi, the winner of the last two Candidates tournaments. With a win, Caruana would have forced tie-breaks.
Gukesh Dommaraju is playing against Ding Liren for the world title this year. It is not yet clear when and where the game will take place. It is the first World Cup duel without European participation and the first between two Asians.
Gukesh is clearly the youngest player allowed to play for the World Cup. Garry Kasparov, 40 years ago, when he won the Candidates Tournament (and subsequently won the World Cup), was 20 years and 11 months, three years older than Gukesh at present. The Ukrainian Ruslan Ponomaryov won a World Cup as an 18-year-old in 2002, but at that time the title was shared and the strongest players – Vladimir Kramnik and Garry Kasparov – did not take part.
Gukesh Dommaraju found his way to chess through a World Cup: in 2013, when the Norwegian dominator Magnus Carlsen (who this year again decided not to take part in the Candidates Tournament of his own free will) won the title for the first time, the game was played in Chennai, in Gukesh’s hometown. «I visited the hall for one of the games. It was something huge. I had just started playing chess. After that the game didn’t let me go again.”
Gukesh surprised the entire competition in Toronto as the youngest participant. When did he realize he could win the Candidates Tournament? «If I have to name a moment, it was probably after the 7th game (of 14) after I lost to Alireza Firouzja. Even though I had just suffered a painful defeat, I felt at my best. I played well throughout the tournament and always recognized what was happening on the board.”