The young Grandmaster D Gukesh on Wednesday evening received a grand welcome at the Chennai Airport after scripting history at the Candidates Chess 2024.
Gukesh grabbed the national attention after becoming the youngest chess player to compete for the World Championships title after defeating Hikaru Nakamura of the USA at the FIDE Candidates Tournament, which was held in Canada's Toronto.
The 17-year-old managed to win 9 out of 14 possible points after drawing a final-round game against Nakamura to script an achievement in the history of chess world. With this, D Gukesh became just the Indian chess player after legendary Viswanathan Anand to win the Candidates.
In a viral video, D Gukesh was seen coming out of the Chennai Airport with grand welcome as many people cheered and applauded for the young rising star. Also, the students from his school, Velammal Vidyalaya, queued up to receive him from the airport.
In another video shared by Chess Base India on its Instagram handle, D Gukesh was seen hugging his mother, grandmother and sister as soon as they saw them while speaking to the media at the Chennai airport. Gukesh's mother appeared to be emotional after what her son achieved in his short career thus far.
D Gukesh will fight for the World Championship title when he will take on reigning champion Ding Liren of China later this year. Viswanathan Anand is the only Indian chess player to become the World Champion, achieving it not once but five times in 2000, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012.
The Chennai-born chess player was first shot to fame when he became the youngest Grandmaster in the history of chess at the age of 12 and 7 months in 2019. However, the world record was shattered by Indian-American Abhimanyu Mishra, achieving the feat at the age of 12 and 4 months in 2021.
In September 2023, D Gukesh dethroned Viswanathan Anand as No.1 Indian chess player, ending Anand's long-standing reign as the top-ranked Indian chess player after 37 years.
