Gukesh Dommaraju Becomes Youngest World Chess Champion (theguardian.com) 46
Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju made history by defeating China's Ding Liren to become the youngest world chess champion at 18, sealing a dramatic 7.5-6.5 victory in the 14-game match. The Guardian reports: The 18-year-old from Chennai dramatically snatched the decisive victory from a dead-drawn position in the final contest of their best-of-14-games showdown when Ding made one of the worst blunders in the 138-year history of world championship matchplay. The 32-year-old defending champion resigned moments later after a game that lasted 58 moves and just over four hours, sealing Gukesh's 7.5-6.5 win in the three-week match and rendering moot the widely expected prospect of tiebreaker matches on Friday afternoon.
In doing so, Gukesh shattered the age record held by Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he toppled Anatoly Karpov in 1985. Gukesh admitted he didn't initially recognize Ding's rook move (55 Rf2??) as a blunder, saying it took a few seconds to spot that his opponent's bishop was trapped. He could barely conceal his excitement upon the discovery, while a devastated Ding could only bury his head in his hands. "When I realized it, it was probably the best moment of my life," said Gukesh, who brings home the $1.35 million winner's share of the $2.5 million prize fund along with the sport's most prestigious title.
In doing so, Gukesh shattered the age record held by Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he toppled Anatoly Karpov in 1985. Gukesh admitted he didn't initially recognize Ding's rook move (55 Rf2??) as a blunder, saying it took a few seconds to spot that his opponent's bishop was trapped. He could barely conceal his excitement upon the discovery, while a devastated Ding could only bury his head in his hands. "When I realized it, it was probably the best moment of my life," said Gukesh, who brings home the $1.35 million winner's share of the $2.5 million prize fund along with the sport's most prestigious title.
He plays chess? (Score:2)
I thought Dr. Strange defeated him in the first movie.
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More importantly, did he use a remote controlled butt plug? Why else would the "games" category icon look like one?
I can't tell if this is a comment on age, not recognizing the old Atari controller, or a comment on someone's buttplug obsession. Hmm. Things to ponder on a Friday morning.
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I thought Dr. Strange defeated him in the first movie.
That's Dormammu, not Dommaraju.
But yes, Dormammu plays chess too.
https://www.marvel.com/comics/... [marvel.com]
American Public Schools Exceptionalism (Score:1)
AND That, my friends, is why American Public Schools are the best. Two of our TOP students competed and one is the World Chess Champiion. /s
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Not a world championship (Score:3)
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BTW, we don't need to talk about the world. Gukesh isn't even the strongest player in India.
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Any organization can create a chess tournament and call the winner the world champion. Right now, Magnus is the world champion, even though FIDE has set up a tournament every other year.
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No, Magnus isn't FIDE World Champion. But he is the chess world champion, and it isn't even close.
Is Gukesh the strongest chess player in the world? No.
But just like every other sport/activity the World Champion is a title, not a ranking, and you achieve it by winning the World Championship. Sometimes the World Champion is the best, often they're simply an elite player who was the best on that day.
If there's a controversy that prevents a number of top players from competing, such as a boycott, then maybe you start throwing an asterix next to the name of the champion.
But delegitimizing the title just bec
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If being the #1 player makes you world champion, all you have to do is gain a lot of ELO, and then sit on your laurels, playing a match or two a year to maintain activity, and you will be every year the world champion.
You are assuming that ELO is what indicates the #1 player. You are wrong. You have been wrong at every part of this conversation.
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Personally I think your definition is stupid. But I respect your right to use stupid definitions.
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Not sure why the discussion is complicated.
Everybody knows the FIDE World Champion is not the strongest chess player in the world.
The mechanism is strange too.
Imagine in tennis, for example, one player who is "World Champion" goes downhill and slides to #25 in the world.
Then there is a tournament with 8 of the top players, and the one ranked #5 wins it.
Then at the end of the year there's a tournament with many matches between the #5 and #25 (so might as well cancel the ATP Tour finals), and the winner of th
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Gukesh is the FIDE world champion. Good job to Gukesh. He's not the best in the world. Whether that makes him the "world champion" or not, depends entirely on how you define the words "world champion", which is a neverending argument. FIDE isn't the one that gets to define words.
Personally I think your definition is stupid. But I respect your right to use stupid definitions.
Underdogs are always winning world championships, they're still world champions.
You have the right to think my definition is stupid, just realize it's the definition that practically everyone uses because it's the one that makes sense.
The World Championships is an event organized by the main governing body of a sport, the person who wins that event is the World Champion. It doesn't mean you're the best, it just means you won the World Championship. And some sports are even in the Olympics and when they win
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Not sure why the discussion is complicated.
Everybody knows the FIDE World Champion is not the strongest chess player in the world.
The mechanism is strange too.
Imagine in tennis, for example, one player who is "World Champion" goes downhill and slides to #25 in the world.
Then there is a tournament with 8 of the top players, and the one ranked #5 wins it.
Then at the end of the year there's a tournament with many matches between the #5 and #25 (so might as well cancel the ATP Tour finals), and the winner of that gets to call himself World Champion.
Seems like a good system, this should be introduced in every sport.
It's different, but kind of like boxing where you need to beat the old champion one-on-one to take the title (unless the old champion refuses to defend it).
Makes a bit of sense for chess since chess has so many draws and a full set of match games is insane.
It makes no sense for a lot of sports, but it works for chess. The only issue is when the reigning champ abdicates and then the new champ doesn't have the opportunity to defeat them for the title.
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But the Chess system? There's a tournament meant to crown a World Champion, Gukesh competed in it, he won, and therefore he is the World Champion.
Here you are absolutely wrong, Gukesh is the FIDE world champion. There's a clear difference.
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Magnus is the best in the world. There is no dispute.
Which is why no one is disputing that.
But he's no longer the world champion. Of that there is also no dispute.
But the Chess system? There's a tournament meant to crown a World Champion, Gukesh competed in it, he won, and therefore he is the World Champion.
Here you are absolutely wrong, Gukesh is the FIDE world champion. There's a clear difference.
Since you quoted my last line I thought you might have read some of the preceeding ones.
The World Championships is an event organized by the main governing body of a sport, the person who wins that event is the World Champion.
FIDE is indisputably the governing body for chess, just like the IAAF if the govern
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If he decided to come up with his own championship match outside FIDE there would be a controversy.
There isn't controversy. He's the best in the world. Apparently you don't want to recognize that.
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"noun: champion; plural noun: champions 1. a person who has surpassed all rivals in a sporting contest or other competition."
You're trying to insert "governing body" into the definition of "champion" and it's an example of the logical fallacy of motivated reasoning.
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"noun: champion; plural noun: champions
1.
a person who has surpassed all rivals in a sporting contest or other competition."
So... being called the World Champion for surpassing all rivals in the competition known as the World Championships.
You're trying to insert "governing body" into the definition of "champion" and it's an example of the logical fallacy of motivated reasoning.
I'm sorry but this is getting ridiculous. Are you going to claim that no "World Champions" have ever existed? Because that's the standard you just set.
Every World Champion there ever was got that title by winning an event organized by the sport's governing body.
Re:Not a world championship (Score:4, Funny)
> Fischer is not the best player in the world right now.
I'd say he's pretty low in the rankings. Heck, even I could beat him. I'll just open with 1. e4 and he'll lose when the time runs out (unless he rises from his grave).
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geez how boring (Score:2)
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I believe Ding is relieved (Score:2)
It may be that deep down Ding wanted to get rid of the world champion title. If you look at his ratings chart since he became world champion:
https://ratings.fide.com/profi... [fide.com]
he dropped from over 2800 to be outside of the top 20.
https://2700chess.com/players/... [2700chess.com]
To get an idea of how high 2800 is, keep in mind that Karpov never crossed 2800.
There is such a thing as too much pressure to perform at a standard worthy of a world champion and the consensus among the top chess players is that Ding was playing progr
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