Is D Gukesh really the youngest chess champion in the world? "No" may be Ruslan Ponomariov's response. Here's why.

Meet the youngest FIDE world champion, Ruslan Ponomariov. Hold on, isn't D Gukesh there? Technically speaking, he isn't. What? How can that be? Let's simplify it. The youngest unchallenged FIDE world champion is D Gukesh. Here, "undisputed" is crucial. I get it. However, what about it? In summary, there were two world chess champions from 1993 to 2006: one was the uncontested classical world champion, who competed outside of FIDE's jurisdiction, and the other was crowned via a FIDE-sponsored knockout tournament.

According to The indian Express, former world champion Gary Kasparov, who is recognised for having won the title from 1993 to 2000, left FIDE following a disagreement and founded the Professional Chess Association. IM David Levy stated for Chessbase in 2004 that "there have been two titles since 1993, the phoney one controlled and organised by FIDE and the real one organised outside of FIDE's control.""FIDE carried on holding its own "World Championship" when Kasparov was defending his title against the most formidable opponents of the time. However, the goal of FIDE's event was not to determine who was the best chess player in the world at the time; rather, it was only a competition in which the victor would be crowned "World Champion" by FIDE," he wrote.

It goes without saying that the top chess players in the world weren't always present in the FIDE-sponsored knockout competition, also called the world championship. In 2002, Ruslan Ponomariov of ukraine emerged victorious from one of such competitions and was named the FIDE world champion.Ponomariov won the title of World champion when?

"With the victory, Ponomariov became the youngest FIDE World champion, just a few months after turning eighteen. The current and former classical world champions, GMs Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, respectively, did not participate in this world championship event since the world title was split at the time, according to chess.com.In contrast, Gukesh won the title of world champion at the age of eighteen and six months. With two-game matches in the first five rounds, four-game matches in the semifinals, and eight-game matches in the finals, Ponomariov, who was 14 at the time, was younger than Gukesh and had previously held the record for being the youngest Grand Master. However, the best chess players in the world did not recognise it.Now, where is Ponomariov? Up until the early 2010s, he had a strong chess career and was ranked among the top 20 players in the world. He continues to be active in chess today by participating in elite chess tournaments and frequently streaming, according to chess.com.

When FIDE World Chess champion Veselin Topalov and Classical World Chess champion Kramnik teamed up to declare an uncontested World champion in 2006, the conflict between the two chess divisions was ultimately settled.The crucial query now is: Is Gukesh the youngest world champion? Officially, he is, since there is some disagreement on Ponomariov's victory.