Indian teenage grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju becomes youngest world chess champion in history

Indian grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju, 18, has become the youngest world chess champion in the history of the game, dethroning Chinese star grandmaster Ding Liren Thursday in their title match in Singapore.

Mr. Gukesh, part of a rising wave of Indian stars, won the 14th and final game of his match with Mr. Ding to take the title by a 7½-6½ score.

Despite having the disadvantage of the Black pieces, Mr. Gukesh won a pawn against his rival and took advantage of a blunder by his opponent in the final moves of what experts said was a relatively even endgame. In the final position, Mr. Gukesh was preparing to push through a pawn for a new queen when Mr. Ding resigned from the game and the match after 58 moves.

The new Indian champ won three games in the match to Mr. Ding’s two victories, with the rest of the games being drawn. Mr. Ding, the first world champion from China, won the title in 2023 after longtime champ Magnus Carlsen of Norway voluntarily vacated the throne.

Mr. Gukesh breaks the record for youngest champion set by Russian great Garry Kasparov, who won the crown in 1985 at the age of 22. The teen claimed $1.35 million of the $2.5 million match prize fund for his victory.

He is the second grandmaster from his country to hold the world title. Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand was the undisputed world champion for six years starting in 2007.

Mr. Gukesh had carried the play for much of the match, despite the tied score, pressing in several games for a win when Mr. Ding seemed content with draws. That held true in Thursday’s 14th game, when Mr. Ding passed up an opportunity to play for the advantage but found himself in a position where only his opponent had chances to win.

“My whole strategy was to push as much as possible in every single game with both colors, and it wasn’t working till the last moment, but it just takes one game for the strategy to pay off,” Mr. Gukesh told reporters in Singapore after the final game concluded.

Correction: A previous version of this story misspelled Gukesh Dommaraju’s name in the headline.