Who, in the year 2024, became the youngest player ever to win the FIDE Candidates Tournament?
- (a)Viswanathan Anand
- (b)Garry Kasparov
- (c)D. Gukesh
- (d)Ding Liren
Correct — C, D. Gukesh. In April 2024, 17-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju won the FIDE Candidates Tournament in Toronto, becoming the youngest player in history to win a Candidates — breaking Garry Kasparov's 40-year-old record (Kasparov won it in 1984 aged 20). The win made Gukesh the youngest-ever challenger for the World Chess Championship.
- (a)Viswanathan Anand — A five-time World Chess Champion from an earlier generation; he did not compete in or win the 2024 Candidates Tournament.
- (b)Garry Kasparov — The previous youngest-ever Candidates winner (1984, aged 20) — his record is exactly what Gukesh broke in 2024, not something Kasparov did that year.
- (d)Ding Liren — The reigning World Chess Champion in 2024 (title won in 2023); Gukesh challenged and defeated him for the world title in December 2024, but Ding did not win the 2024 Candidates.
The FIDE Candidates Tournament is the top-level qualifying event whose winner earns the right to challenge the reigning World Chess Champion. In April 2024 (Toronto), D. Gukesh won the Candidates at age 17, becoming its youngest-ever champion.
The distractors are all real, well-known chess names from different eras/roles — the exam is testing whether you can pin the SPECIFIC 2024 achievement to Gukesh rather than any famous chess name that comes to mind.
- D. Gukesh (Gukesh Dommaraju) won the 2024 FIDE Candidates Tournament (Toronto) aged 17 — the youngest-ever winner.
- He broke Garry Kasparov's 1984 record (Kasparov was 20 when he won the Candidates).
- Winning the Candidates earns the right to challenge the reigning World Chess Champion.
- Ding Liren was the reigning World Champion in 2024; Gukesh later defeated him in December 2024 to become World Champion himself.
Gukesh's 2024 Candidates win broke a 40-year-old record and set up his eventual World Championship win over Ding Liren.
- Picking Kasparov because he too once held the 'youngest Candidates winner' record — that record is exactly what Gukesh broke
- Confusing the Candidates Tournament (qualifier) with the World Championship match (title decider) — Gukesh won the Candidates in April 2024 and the World Championship separately in December 2024
MPPSC/UPSC test high-profile 2024 sporting 'firsts'/records — pin the exact achievement (Candidates win vs World Championship win) to the exact year.
No directly related past UPSC PYQ was found. The closest store hit (a 2025 question on the Chess Olympiad and Abhimanyu Mishra's youngest-Grandmaster record) tests a different specific fact, not the 2024 Candidates Tournament win, so it was not linked.
- practice — not a real PYQ
D. Gukesh became the youngest-ever World Chess Champion in December 2024 by defeating which player?
- (a)Ian Nepomniachtchi
- (b)Ding Liren
- (c)Magnus Carlsen
- (d)Fabiano Caruana
Answer(b) Ding Liren — the reigning champion, defeated by Gukesh in December 2024.
- practice — not a real PYQ
Winning the FIDE Candidates Tournament earns a player the right to:
- (a)host the next Chess Olympiad
- (b)challenge the reigning World Chess Champion
- (c)become FIDE President
- (d)select the venue for the next Candidates
Answer(b) Challenge the reigning World Chess Champion.