Emil Stofsky, CEO of FIDE, the world governing body for chess, said the 17-year-old from Chennai won an eight-player selection tournament in Toronto. It was later revealed on social media. A challenger to the world championship.
The venue for the contest has not yet been decided.
Teenager Gukesh defeated a strong troika of Americans Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana and Russia's Ian Nepomniachi to become the winner of the nominees on Monday. Nepomniachi has competed in two world championships, while Caruana, who is ranked second in the world, is competing in his fifth candidacy competition and has won once. Meanwhile, Nakamura, who is ranked 3rd in the world, was participating in the Candidates Tournament for the third time.
Despite their experience, they were unable to prevent Gukesh from hitting the tape first in his Candidate debut. With one round left, Gukesh moved into the lead, but the trio were separated by just half a point. Gukesh only needed to draw with Nakamura in the last match, but if the other match between Caruana and Nepomniatchi also draws, then if either of them wins, they will face Gukesh in a tiebreaker.
At 12 years, 7 months and 17 days old, Gukesh became the youngest grandmaster in Indian history, falling just 17 days short of becoming the world's youngest grandmaster. Last year, he overtook five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand to become the country's top-ranked player for the first time in 36 years. Now he has added the feat of becoming the youngest candidate winner in history to that illustrious list, and will become the youngest World Chess Champion when he faces Ding at the World Championship later this year.
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Originally uploaded to: April 23, 2024, 12:22 IST
