Dommaraju Gukesh (born 29 May 2006), better known as Gukesh D, is an Indian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

grandmaster. A

chess prodigy The term chess prodigy refers to a young child who possesses an aptitude for the game of chess that far exceeds what might be expected at their age. Their prodigious talent will often enable them to defeat experienced adult players and even title ...

, he is the third-youngest person in history to qualify for the title of Grandmaster, which

FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( Fédération Internationale des Échecs), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national c ...

awarded him in March 2019. On 16 October 2022, at the age of 16, he became the youngest player ever to defeat current world champion

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

, when he beat Carlsen in a game at the Aimchess Rapid Tournament.

Early life

Gukesh was born on 29 May 2006 in

Chennai Chennai (, ), formerly known as Madras ( the official name until 1996), is the capital city of Tamil Nadu, the southernmost Indian state. The largest city of the state in area and population, Chennai is located on the Coromandel Coast of th ...

Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu (; , TN) is a States and union territories of India, state in southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, tenth largest Indian state by area and the List of states and union territories of India ...

. His father, Rajnikanth, is an

ear, nose and throat Otorhinolaryngology ( , abbreviated ORL and also known as otolaryngology, otolaryngology–head and neck surgery (ORL–H&N or OHNS), or ear, nose, and throat (ENT)) is a surgical subspeciality within medicine that deals with the surgical a ...

surgeon, and his mother, Padma, is a microbiologist. He learnt chess at the age of seven. He studies in Velammal Vidyalaya, Mel Ayanambakkam, Chennai.

Career

Gukesh won the Under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships in 2015, and the

World Youth Chess Championship The World Youth Chess Championship is a FIDE-organized worldwide chess competition for boys and girls under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. Twelve world champions are crowned every year. Since 2015, the event has been split into "World Cade ...

s in 2018 in the Under 12 category. He also won five gold medals at the 2018 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. He completed the requirements for the title of

International Master FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating and ...

in March 2018 at the 34th

Cappelle-la-Grande Open The Cappelle-la-Grande Open is a chess tournament held every year in Cappelle-la-Grande, France, since 1985. It is usually played in the second half of February with an accelerated Swiss-system format in nine rounds. It is organized by the chess cl ...

. Gukesh almost surpassed

Sergey Karjakin Sergey Alexandrovich Karjakin, . (born 12 January 1990) is a Russian chess grandmaster (formerly representing Ukraine). A chess prodigy, he previously held the record for the world's youngest ever grandmaster, (until it was eventually taken b ...

as the youngest grandmaster ever, but missed the record by 17 days. He became the second-youngest grandmaster in history on 15 January 2019, at the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days. However, he is India's youngest as of 2022. In June 2021, he won the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour, Gelfand Challenge, scoring 14 out of 19 points. In August 2022, he began the

44th Chess Olympiad The 44th Chess Olympiad (also known as the Indian Chess Olympiad), was organised by the FIDE, Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) in Chennai, the state capital of Tamil Nadu, India from 28 July to 9 August 2022. It consisted of open ...

with a perfect score of 8/8, helping to defeat the No. 1 ranked U.S. in the 8th match. He finished with a score of 9 out 11, a 2867 Elo performance, earning the gold medal on the 1st board. In October 2022, Gukesh became the youngest player to beat

since becoming

World Champion A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

, in the Aimchess Rapid tournament.

References

External links

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D Gukesh
ID card at the

All India Chess Federation The All India Chess Federation (AICF) is central administrative body for the game of chess in India. Founded in 1951, the federation is affiliated to Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), the world body for chess. The AICF has produce ...

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gukesh D 2006 births Living people Chess grandmasters Indian chess players World Youth Chess Champions Sportspeople from Chennai Telugu people