Chess: D. Gukesh profile | A young knight who has the armoury to reign supreme

Dommaraju Gukesh's unexpected win at the Candidates chess tournament makes him the youngest-ever World Chess Championship challenger.

The walk may have felt the longest in his life for Dommaraju Gukesh.

After his game with Hikaru Nakamura ended in a draw at the Great Hall in Toronto in the final round of the Candidates chess tournament, and listening to the commentary on the ongoing game between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana for a while, he decided to take a walk along with Grzegorz Gajewski, his second (sparring partner).

He hadn’t felt so much stress even during the three-week long tournament, in which he had to face the most of the world’s best chess players twice.

He had done his best. But was it enough?

Gukesh was in no position to answer it, though. That answer had to come from the game between Nepomniachtchi, the man who had won the last two editions of the tournament, and Fabiano Caruana, the top seed. The ideal answer would be a draw.

It didn’t look like a draw though.

Caruana seemed poised for a win, and that meant Gukesh would have to play a tie-breaker the following day. If Nepominiachtchi and Caruana drew, they would remain on 8.5 points, along with Nakamura, the second seed. That would leave Gukesh, who had nine points, the undisputed champion: no tie-breakers would be required.