Dommaraju Gukesh or D Gukesh grabbed the headlines after scripting history at the Candidates Chess Tournament 2024 in Canada's Toronto on Monday, April 22.
Gukesh became the youngest challenger to the World Chess Championship after defeating American Hikaru Nakamura in the Candidates Chess Tournament. The 17-year-old accumulated nine out of 14 possible points after drawing his final-round game against Nakamura.
D Gukesh took a sole lead after defeating Firouzja Alireza of Iran in the 13th round of the Candidates Chess Tournament, putting him on the verge of scripting a feat in the history of the sport. Gukesh's victory in the final round came after Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia and top-seeded American Fabiano Caruana played out a draw.
D Gukesh will take on defending World Champion Ding Liren of China for the crown later this year. The young chess star became the second after legendary Viswanathan Anand to win the Candidates. The veteran chess player and five-time champion first scripted the feat in 2014.
Who is D Gukesh?
In a short career thus far, D Gukesh has been touted as the next big thing in the World of Chess. The 17-year-old was born into a Telugu-speaking family residing in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. Gukesh started playing at the young age of 7.
Gukesh comes from a well-educated family as his father, Dr. Rajinikanth is an ENT (Ear, Nose and Throat) surgeon while his mother, Padma, is a microbiologist by profession.
Gukesh career breakthrough came in 2018 when the U-12 category at the World Youth Chess Championship. That year, the youngster bagged five gold medals at the Asian Youth Chess Championships, In the U-12 individual rapid and blitz, U-12 team rapid and blitz, and the U-12 individual classical formats.
India's youngest Chess Grandmaster
D Gukesh was shot to fame when he became the youngest Grandmaster in the history of chess at the age of 12 years and 7 months in 2019. The 17-year-old almost surpassed Ukrainian chess player Sergey Karjakin's record of being the youngest grandmaster but missed it by just 17 days.
However, Gukesh is currently India's chess grandmaster as his world record was bettered by Indian-American Abhimanyu Mishra, who achieved it at the age of 12 years and 4 months in June 2021.
In 2022, D Gukesh became the youngest chess player to defeat the five-time World Champion in the Aimchess Rapid tournament.[
In September 2023, D Gukesh yet again grabbed the headlines when he surpassed legendary Viswanathan Anand as top-ranked Indian chess player in the rating list. This marked end of Anand's long-standing reign as the top-ranked Indian chess player after 37 years.
D Gukesh will be shouldered the expectations of the people to win the World Chess Championships title. Viswananthan Anand remains the only Indian chess player to win the World title. Gukesh will look to join the elite list when he takes on reigning champion Ding Liren later this year.
