The 18-year-old Indian teenager has become the youngest ever world chess champion

Indian teenager Gokesh Domaraju became the youngest ever world chess champion after defeating defending champion Ding Liren of China in a dramatic turnaround on Thursday.

At 18, Domaraju is four years younger than Russian grandmaster Garry Kasparov when he won the title in 1985 at the age of 22.

The Chennai prodigy has long been a star in the chess world, having reached the status of chess master at the age of 12.

But he was seen as the contender for the final of the World Chess Championship held in Singapore this year.

The match commentators noted that by playing black, Dommaraju won the match after Deng faltered under pressure and made a rare mistake while in a strong position.

The 18-year-old claimed victory with a score of 7.5-6.5 in the final tournament, bringing an end to two weeks of two-player matches closely followed by chess fans around the world.

Ding, China's first world chess champion, has faced pressure about his level throughout the year since winning the 2023 title.

The Chinese player has not won a long-running “classic” match since January and was seen as avoiding other high-level competitions.

But he had a strong opening game and won the last match against Doumaraju, indicating momentum.

Both players had two wins each and eight draws before the final on Thursday.

After hours of close play, Ding on move 55 moved his rook to a very weak position giving Dommaraju the opportunity to capitalize.

Ding immediately realized his mistake, and fell on the table.

“Ding appeared to have a risk-free opportunity to push for the win, but instead was eliminated to the end of the game,” Chess.com wrote in its post-match summary. “It should have been withdrawn, but Deng made a mistake as the pressure mounted.”

It was endgame from there on out. Deng resigned after three steps.

Domaraju immediately burst into tears as the spectators in the room erupted in cheers.

“I was probably very emotional because I didn't really expect to win this position,” he said according to reports.

At the age of 18, he also became the second Indian player to become a world chess champion, after five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Narendra Modi was among the first to pay tribute to him.

“Historical and ideal!” He wrote on

The FIDE World Chess Championship prize pool is $2.5 million (£1.96 million).