Congratulations to Gukesh Dommaraju the new chess World Champion!

Gukesh defeated reigning world champion Ding Liren 7.5-6.5 over 14 games in classical time control to become, at 18 the youngest ever champion eclipsing Garry Kasparov’s achievement at the age of 22.

The final game of the championship saw both players going for it until Ding decided to try and go for the draw late in the game and take the championship to tie-breaks but it was a strategy that backfired spectacularly. The swapping off of all the pieces left Gukesh with an easy (even for us lesser mortals) K+2p vrs K+1p ending which Ding resigned after realising his blunder.

The King is dead. Long live the King.

Well done Gukesk a worthy champion and inspiration to all juniors out there.

See Ollie Willson’s commentary on the final game of the championship.