• India’s 17-year-old Grandmaster D. Gukesh scripted history by winning the Candidates Chess Tournament in Toronto to become the youngest ever challenger to the world title.

• Gukesh bettered the record created by Russian chess legend Garry Kasparov 40 years ago. Kasparov was 22 when he qualified in 1984 to clash with compatriot Anatoly Karpov, making him the youngest challenger of that time

• Gukesh played out an easy draw with American Hikaru Nakamura in the 14th and final round to finish with nine out of a possible 14 points in the tournament that is held to decide the challenger to the world champion.

• The triumph entitles Gukesh a clash against reigning world champion Ding Liren of China in the last quarter of the year.

• The Chennai-based teen also won a cash award of 88,500 euros (approximately Rs 78.5 lakh). The total prize fund of the Candidates was 5,00,000 euros.

• China’s former world champion Tan Zhongyi won the women’s Candidates and will play with her compatriot Ju Wenjun in the championship matchup.

• Gukesh became only the second Indian after the great Viswanathan Anand to win the prestigious tournament. Five-time world champion Anand’s triumph came in 2014.

• Gukesh has been making waves for a while now after becoming the third youngest in chess history to earn the Grandmaster title at the age of 12. He later became the youngest to achieve an ELO rating of 2750.

• Last year, Gukesh won a silver medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games.

Candidates Tournament

• The Candidates Tournament is the final test that a player must pass to challenge the world champion in chess.

• It was established in 1950.

• This event emerged as a response to the need for a systematic approach to determine a world championship challenger. 

• Prior to 1950, contenders had to navigate a maze of negotiations directly with the champion, secure funding, and organise a match, a process that lacked structure and consistency.

• The turning point came in 1950 when Budapest hosted the inaugural Candidates Tournament, a 10-player double round-robin to select the Challenger for the then World Champion, Mikhail Botvinnik. 

• This tradition, set in Budapest, continued almost every third year until 1993, alternating between tournaments and matches. However, the early 1990s saw a disruption due to the split in the world championship structure.

• The Candidates Tournament returned to prominence in 2007 as part of the unified cycle, initially in the form of matches.

• The Candidates is a double round-robin tournament with the player finishing in first place getting the chance to challenge the world champion.

FIDE

• The International Chess Federation (Federation Internationale des Echecs) is the governing body of the sport of chess, and it regulates all international chess competitions. It was founded in 1924 in Paris. In 1999, FIDE was recognised by the International Olympic Committee as a global sporting organisation.

• The UN General Assembly has proclaimed July 20 as World Chess Day to mark the date of the establishment of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in Paris in 1924.

• FIDE awards several performance-based titles to chess players.

• They are Grandmaster (GM), International Master (IM), FIDE Master (FM), Candidate Master (CM), Woman Grandmaster (WGM), Woman International Master (WIM), Woman FIDE Master (WFM), Woman Candidate Master (WCM).

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