The first year of the 21st century i.e. 2000 was very special for Indian chess. This year, for the first time, an Indian had achieved the feat of becoming world champion in the world of chess. This achievement was achieved by Vishwanathan Anand, who became the first Grand Master of India. Now 2024 has also ended in a memorable way for Indian chess. India's young Grand Master D Gukesh created history by winning the World Championship title. He also became the youngest Grand Master who achieved this feat at the age of just 18. With this, Gukesh did something amazing which no Indian before him could do. That is a hat-trick of records in a single year.

As soon as 18 year old Dommaraju Gukesh forced China's Ding Liren to resign in Singapore on the evening of Thursday 12th December, tears welled up in his eyes. This time it was not possible for this young chess star, who was successful in hiding his emotions in every win or loss, to do so. Emotions automatically appeared on his face and he started crying with joy. Becoming the world's youngest world champion is no mean feat after all. There have been many great players in the long history of chess, many players have become world champions again and again, but no one did this feat at a younger age than them.

Gukesh repeated Anand's achievement

After a tough fight of 14 rounds with defending world champion Ding Liren of China, Gukesh won the world championship for the first time. He became only the second Indian to win this title after India's first and great Grand Master Viswanathan Anand. Anand, who brought chess revolution to India, has been world champion 5 times. It is a happy coincidence that the second Indian to win this title came from his own academy. But along with this championship, Gukesh also achieved an achievement which no Indian before him had achieved. Not even Anand.

But that's why Gukesh's victory is more special

Obviously, for Gukesh, this is the biggest achievement not only of this year but also of his entire career. But even before this, he had done some such miracles, due to which he became a part of history. It started in April 2024, when Gukesh took part in the 'Candidates Tournament', the qualification event for the World Championship. He was the third youngest player to reach here. But in the next few days, he won the tournament by scoring maximum 9 points. With this, at the age of just 17, he became the world's youngest Chess Grand Master to win the Candidates.

Now everyone was waiting for the World Championship, where Gukesh had to face China's Ding Liren. But Gukesh had his eyes set on another miracle. In September, Chess Olympiad was held in Budapest, the capital of Hungary, in which Gukesh was a part of the Indian team. Gukesh and other players together performed strongly and India created history by winning the gold medal of the Olympiad for the first time. Along with Gukesh, R Praggnanand, Vidit Gujarati and Arjun Argassi were also part of the Indian team. Not only this, Gukesh also won the individual gold medal by performing brilliantly on board 1.

Completed hat-trick with World Championship

After making two brilliant achievements in his name, Gukesh had his eyes set on the biggest prize, with which he would become the world champion and also complete a hat-trick. However, Gukesh's beginning was not good. Ding had defeated him in the very first game. After this the next game was a draw. However, Gukesh did not take much time in making a comeback and won the third game to make the score 1.5 – 1.5. After this, the next 7 consecutive games were drawn. Then in the 11th match, Gukesh took the lead for the first time by winning, but Ding immediately leveled the score by winning the next match. The 13th match between the two was a draw, after which the focus was on the 14th and last match and Gukesh won the World Championship without making any mistakes here.