Gukesh Dommaraju becomes youngest world chess champion after horrific Ding Liren blunder

Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju capped a stunning ascent to the pinnacle of chess by dethroning China’s Ding Liren to become the youngest ever world chess champion on Wednesday in Singapore.

The 18-year-old from Chennai snatched the decisive victory in the final game of their best-of-14-games showdown, which appeared bound for a draw until a stunning blunder by Ding in the final reel. The 32-year-old champion resigned moments later after a game that lasted just over four hours.

Gukesh said he didn’t initially recognize Ding’s slip-up as a blunder. It took a few seconds to realize that his opponent’s bishop was trapped.

“When I realized it, it was probably the best moment of my life,” he said.

Ding, playing with the white pieces, was better out of the opening but Gukesh was able to unlock his pieces and stabilize in the middlegame. The draw appeared inevitable when material starting coming off the board in bunches starting with move 19.

But what appeared to be headed for a quiet draw suddenly became complicated when Ding sacrificed a pawn in exchange for a simple endgame. That left Gukesh with no choice but to fight on and he was happy to punish his foe in a grueling endgame under mounting time pressure.

That’s when Ding finally cracked.

“I was totally in shock when I realized I made a blunder,” Ding said. “His facial expression showed that he was very happy and excited and I realized I made a blunder. It took some time to realize it.”

Ding entered the title match at the Equarius Hotel in Singapore having gone 28 classical games without a win, a dreadful run of form that saw him drop to 23rd in the world rankings and prompted the oddsmakers to install him as roughly a 3-1 longshot in the match. But he sprang a major surprise in Game 1

by winning as black

Game 2

was a quiet draw

While Ding had been regarded as the underdog in the match due to his unremarkable form, he would have gone off as a slight favorite if the match was decided in rapid or blitz games.

Full report to follow.