Youngest World Chess Champion: Is it D Gukesh or Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine? Here’s an explainer | Chess News

It is now well known that officially Gukesh Dommaraju of India is the 18th and youngest chess World Champion in the hory of the sport that dates back to before 1900. But since his official coronation, there have been a few messages on social media pointing out that there is a small disclaimer to be added to this record. That asterisk comes in the name of Ukrainian Grandmaster Ruslan Ponomariov.
Chess journal and photographer David Llada posted on Friday: Let’s not forget that Ponomariov was 18 years, 3 months and 12 days old when he became World Champion. It is not his fault that the chess world was such a mess at the time.” Peter Heine Nielsen, trainer for both Vishy Anand and Magnus Carlsen posted a picture on X that had a truck with a text “Asterisk delivery” along with the caption: “The FIDE van arrived at Ponomariov´s house today.”
According to Chess.com, the right way to describe Gukesh’s achievement would be: “youngest universally recognized champion in the hory of chess. Ponomariov won a separate FIDE world title in a knockout tournament in 2002 at a slightly younger age, but not beating the reigning champion in a match.”

Let’s not forget that @Ponomariov was 18 years, 3 months and 12 days old when he became World Champion. It is not his fault that the chess world was such a mess at the time. pic.twitter.com/C1gYRrGNAh
— David Llada ♞ (@davidllada) December 13, 2024
Ponomariov was a prodigy, and in 1997 he became the youngest to earn the Grandmaster title in hory when he was 14 years, and 17 days old. The record was subsequently broken in 1999 Bu Xiangzhi (13 years, 10 months, 13 days) and then came along Sergey Karjakin who achieved his GM title at 12 years, 7 months, and held the record for nearly two decades. In 2002, Ponomariov indeed became the FIDE World Champion but at that time, the chess world was divided. He achieved the title via a 128-player knockout tournament, in which the “classical” world champion at that time (Vladimir Kramnik) did not play.
Since a breakaway from 1993 involving the reigning world champion Garry Kasparov, there were two world champions till 2006: one considered the “classical” world champion and the other, FIDE World Champion. Indeed, the first of Anand’s five world titles came in 2000 in the latter category.

So in the chronology that makes Gukesh the 18th world champion, the likes of Ponomariov along with Alexander Khalifman, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, and Veselin Topalov are not considered because they won the FIDE World Champion titles during that period. So officially, Gukesh is indeed the youngest undisputed world champion.

Why should you buy our Subscription?

You want to be the smartest in the room.
You want access to our award-winning journalism.
You don’t want to be misled and misinformed.

Choose your subscription package