D Gukesh: From starry-eyed prodigy to becoming a teenage chess sensation with Candidates win

New Delhi: From the chess cradle of Chennai has emerged another talent in D Gukesh, who has turned heads by being the youngest champion of the FIDE Candidates tournament.

The 17-year-old Grandmaster (GM) emerged on top of the eight-player standings with nine points in Toronto on Monday to be only the second Indian to qualify for the World Championship final.

In doin so, he emulated his mentor and five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand, who guides him at his eponymous chess academy.

A draw in the final game of the tournament between Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi and top-seeded American Fabiano Caruana guaranteed Gukesh a berth in the World Chess Championship final against defending champion Ding Liren of China.

He bettered the record of Russian wizard Garry Kasparov, set 40 years ago, to become the youngest challenger to the world championship title.

Kasparov was played against compatriot Anatoly Karpov in the championship match in 1984, when he was 22.

Kasparov praised Gukesh for his efforts, terming his achievement in as an “earthquake” while lauding Anand’s contribution to his role.

Introduced to chess early

After being introduced to chess at the tender age of seven years, Gukesh took only six months to become a FIDE rated player once he learnt the nuances of the game.

And soon enough, he won his first title at the U-9 Asian Schools Chess Championship in 2015, earned him the Candidate Master (CM) title.

It was followed up by the U-12 World Youth Chess Championship title in 2018, also five gold medals at the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championships (U-12 individual rapid and blitz, U-12 team rapid and blitz, and the U-12 individual classical formats).

Gukesh was born to ENT surgeon Dr Rajinikanth and her microbiologist mother Padma, who had to sacrifice a lot for their son to chase his dream of excelling at the 64-square chess board.

Rajinikanth stopped his practice around 2017-18 to travel with his son all over the world in tight budgets as his mother assumed the responsibility of being the principle breadearner.

They also decided that Gukesh should pursue chess full time and he stopped attending school after Class IV. They resorted to crowd funding and his prize money to fund his trips when he didn’t have a sponsor.

In March 2018 he became the International Master (IM) and in January 2019, when he was only 12 seven months, and 17 days, he became the second youngest GM only behind Sergey Karjakin’s mark by by 17 days.

Later, Abhimanyu Mishra became the youngest GM in 2021, pushing Gukesh to third on the list.

After winning an individual gold medal and helping India get bronze at the 44th Chess Olympiad in 2022, he crossed 2700 rating points, becoming third youngest after Wei Yi and Alireza Firouzja, with a total of 2726.

The winner of the #FIDECandidates, 🇮🇳Gukesh D @DGukesh and the winner of the Women’s Candidates, 🇨🇳 Tan Zhongyi at the closing ceremony 🏆 pic.twitter.com/HLgyB5Zlb6

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) April 23, 2024

He then stunned former world champion Magnus Carlsen at the Aim Chess Rapid tournament, earning the cap of the youngest player to beat the Norwegian since he became the World champion.

In 2023, Gukesh overtook Anand to be the best ranked Indian for the first time in 37 years. He also became the youngest player ever to reach an Elo rating of 2750.

In December of last year, he qualified for the 2024 Candidates tournament being second as Fabiano Caruana the winner of the FIDE circuit has already booked a spot to the World Cup.

It allowed Gukesh to be the third youngest player – after Bobby Fischer and Carlsen – to participate in the Candidates tournament.

He made the most of it by winning it to become the youngest chess player to challenge for the World Championship title.

Gukesh would aim to beat Liren and have the world at his feet.