D Gukesh receives Major Dhyna Chand Khel Ratna award from President Droupadi Murmu, WATCH

D Gukesh, Droupadi Murmu (Pic: X/@airnewsalerts)

The 19th World chess champion D Gukesh received a round of applause when he walked up to receive the Major Dhyna Chand Khel Ratna award from India's President Droupadi Murmu in the National Sports Awards ceremony. Taking to X:

The 18-year-old became the youngest chess champion player after beating title-holder Ding Liren of China in the 14th and last game of a thrilling showdown in Singapore in the FIDE Chess Championship.

Before D Gukesh's feat, the legendary Garry Kasparov of Russia was the youngest world chess champion when he won the title at the age of 22, dethroning Anatoly Karpov in 1985.

D Gukesh secured the requisite 7.5 points against 6.5 of Liren after winning the last classical time control game of the 14-game match that seemed headed for a draw for the most part.

Also Read: Rishabh Pant's Q&A session, a big hit on X

The other two recipients of the country's highest sporting honour were men's hockey captain Harmanpreet Singh and Paralympic gold-winning high jumper Praveen Kumar when the annual honours were bestowed at the Rashtrapati Bhavan.

Harmanpreet was a part of the national sides that won bronze medals in the Tokyo as well as Paris Olympics. Praveen, on the other hand, upgraded his silver at the Japanese capital to gold last year in Paris. He was born with a short left leg.

Thirty-two athletes are being honoured with the Arjuna Award out of which an unprecedented 17 are para-athletes.

The athletes selected for the Arjuna award include the Paris Olympics bronze medal-winning group of wrestler Aman Sehrawat, shooters Swapnil Kusale and Sarabjot Singh and the men's hockey team players Jarmanpreet Singh, Sukhjeet Singh, Sanjay and Abhishek.

The para-athletes outnumbered the able-bodied ones in the list of Arjuna winners this time due to the magnificent Paris Paralympics performance in which they returned with 29 medals, including seven gold and nine silver.

The 22-year-old Bhaker became independent India's first athlete to win two medals in a single edition of the Olympics with her bronze-winning show in the 10m air pistol individual and 10m air pistol mixed team events in August last.

The 18-year-old Gukesh became the youngest world champion ever by beating China's Ding Liren last month. He is only the second India after the great Viswanathan Anand to achieve this feat.

The annual honours are decided by a points system in which the maximum emphasis is on performances delivered at the Olympics and the World Championships.

(With Agencies Inputs)