CHENNAI — Gukesh Dommaraju defeated defending champion Ding Liren in the final game of the 2024 World Chess Championship to become the youngest outright world chess champion in history. The decisive game ended after Ding moved his bishop to a square where it could be trapped, handing Gukesh the victory and the title.

Ding, 32, had entered the match as the defending champion. The world chess championship is generally contested every two years. In 2022, Magnus Carlsen announced he would no longer compete for the world chess championship, though he continues to participate in other chess tournaments, typically with faster time controls.

Gukesh grew up in Chennai, India, where his parents initially wanted him to play tennis before he became interested in chess as a child. At age seven, he watched Carlsen defeat Viswanathan Anand to become the world chess champion. Anand, who won the world chess championship five times, saw his titles increase interest in chess across India among children.

Gukesh won the under-nine Asia chess championship while in fourth grade. His coach, Vishnu Prasanna, avoided using computer chess engines when working with young players, believing that building chess understanding manually was beneficial for young players. Prasanna wanted Gukesh to build his understanding of the game piece by piece rather than relying on computer analysis. Gukesh began using computer chess engines after he became a grandmaster.

He achieved the grandmaster title at age twelve years, seven months, and seven days, making him the second-youngest person ever to do so at that time. He later became the youngest chess player ever to achieve a rating over 2750, surpassing the previous rating record held by Carlsen.

Gukesh's training included psychological coaching in addition to tactical and strategic instruction. He worked extensively with a mental coach, meditated before his first moves in a game, and avoided publicity as part of his preparation. The book Interregnum: Inside the Grueling and Glamorous Battle to Become the Next King of Chess follows Gukesh and other top chess players during tournaments in 2024.

After winning the world championship title, Gukesh dropped out of the world's top ten chess ratings list. Javokhir Sindarov, 20, who scored a record performance in the 2024 Candidates Tournament, will challenge Gukesh for the world chess title later in 2024.