Gukesh reveals how his life has changed after becoming world’s youngest chess World Champion at 18 | Chess News
Dommaraju Gukesh revealed that how life has changed upside down since he has become world’s youngest chess World Champion at 18. Gukesh has defeated Chinese Ding Liren in a battle of wills that lasted three weeks and tested both players psychologically and physically. He surpassed Garry Kasparov as the youngest.
“In certain ways, yes. Like, there’s obviously more attention back home,” he told Take Take Take.
“Obviously, there is less privacy at home. I mean, in a sense that like when I go out on streets, it’s not the same as before.
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“But in the way that I see myself or I see where my career is, nothing has changed. Still want to improve and do a lot of more things.”
Gukesh is India’s youngest grandmaster, missing the tag of becoming the world’s youngest just 17 days. He’s the youngest-ever winner of the Candidates tournament, which earned him a shot at the World Championship in the first place. And he was the first Indian chess player to topple Viswanathan Anand’s 36-year stay in the world rankings as the top-ranked Indian player.
Reacting on the win, the world champion said: “Yeah, it was certainly a cool moment.”
“I mean, it was like my childhood dream had come true. And yeah, for a few days I was quite excited, quite happy. And then it settled down, I moved on to the next tournaments and started preparing.Story continues below this ad
“So, yeah, I mean, it’s obviously nice that everything went like a dream. And yeah, now on to the next thing.”
The current world champion Gukesh in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Weissenhaus, Germany,
He also explained how he wants to improve his game in the future.
“I see myself more as just an enthusiastic player trying to improve rather than as a world champion who wants to play or not,” he said. Story continues below this ad
“So, playing or not is not a question. I surely want to play. And I just want to achieve a lot more things.
“I think this world championship was one thing, one nice thing, but just a part of the journey.”
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