Grandmaster D. Gukesh has created history for Indian chess as he has now become the youngest World Chess Champion at the age of 18. Gukesh emerged victorious against China’s Ding Liren in an intense and dramatic 14th and final game of the World Chess Championship that kept the fans on their toes till the last tick of the clock.
After the glorious win, Gukesh is to be paid off with a handsome amount in dollars. The overall money purse for the championship amounted to USD 2.5 million, roughly translated to Rs 21 crore. As per the FIDE rules, the winner of each game gets a profit of USD 200,000, which comes down to approximately Rs 1.68 crore. What is left of the money goes to the two champions.
Gukesh won three of the games, earning USD 600,000 (approximately Rs 5.04 crore). Ding Liren, who secured two wins, earned USD 400,000 (around Rs 3.36 crore). The remaining prize pool of USD 1.5 million was split between the two players. As a result, Gukesh’s total earnings from the championship came to approximately USD 1.35 million, or roughly Rs 11.34 crore.
The good news is that the young champion would also have a huge tax implication on the winnings. Under the Income Tax Laws in India, he would come in the slab of 30% which would lead him to approximately Rs 3 crore towards income tax alone. Then, over this amount, there will be a surcharge to which his overall income tax comes to Rs 4.67 crores as a report suggested.
Congrats to the Indian Tax dept for winning the World Chess Championship and earning 5 crores out of the 11 crore prize money.
— Gabbar (@GabbbarSingh) December 13, 2024
The amount is highly taxed and has sparked some criticisms amongst netizens, where they feel it is quite an amount on a young athlete that brought such pride to the nation for his international triumph.
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