Sports in 2024: A year of promise fulfilled and a reset for the future
Subscribe to enjoy similar stories. He’s too young, they said. Too inexperienced.
The temperament was questioned, so was the endurance. But over a fortnight in Toronto in April, and then a historic few days in Singapore in December, Gukesh Dommaraju defied expectations and dispelled all doubts to rocket from prodigy to world champion. He beat an eight-player field to win the FIDE Candidates Tournament 2024 and earn a place at the world championship table.
Once there, Gukesh endured a tense, nervy, close-fought match against reigning champion Ding Liren. Like a boxing duel played out in intense silence, Gukesh and Liren went toe-to-toe, battled it out for 14 rounds. In a high-pressure final game, the Chinese grandmaster blinked first.
As soon as he blundered on move 55, Liren knew his title had slipped. Gukesh, whose impassive celebration after winning the Candidates had belied his age, dissolved in tears after edging out Liren 7-6. At 18, he had become the youngest chess world champion in the glorious, storied history of the sport.
Gukesh also became the second Indian, after icon and five-time champion Viswanathan Anand, to clinch the world crown. It was the world championship match between Anand and Magnus Carlsen in 2013, which had taken place in Anand’s hometown Chennai, that had fascinated and inspired Gukesh, who was seven at the time. “When I was in the stands, looking inside the glass box, I thought it would be so cool to be inside one day," he said at a press conference in Singapore.
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