D Gukesh's father names Indian GM who played a 'big role' in his son's growth and it's not Viswanathan Anand

An Indian Grandmaster played a big role in helping Dommaraju Gukesh become the youngest champion in the history of chess and according to Gukesh’s father Rajinikanth, it wasn’t the legendary Viswanathan Anand. According to Rajinikanth, who accompanies the teen chess prodigy to tournaments everywhere and was present in Singapore where his son defeated China's Ding Liren in the 2024 FIDE World Chess Championship , it was 38-year-old Harikrishna Pentala who had played a “big role” in his son’s growth in the last couple of years leading into the World Championships.

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“Gukesh and Hari worked together for a week in 2022 and then Gukesh kept up his upward trajectory by winning the Gijon Open, crossing 2700 Elo in Biel and then the Chennai Olympiad 2022 performance when he won the individual gold and team bronze,” Rajinikanth told ChessBase India.

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“Hari was kind enough to invite Gukesh to his home after he crossed 2650. He had mentioned that he was impressed with Gukesh’s game. I believe that one week of intense camp at Hari’s place played a big role in Gukesh’s growth back then. He then helped him at the Candidates and also for the World Championship Match and I am very thankful for his efforts and guidance,” he added.

Harikrishna is a Grandmaster from Andhra Pradesh who had achieved a peak ELO Rating and world ranking of 2,770 and 10 respectively, both in 2016. Most recently, he was part of the Indian ‘Open’ team also comprising Gukesh that bulldozed its way to gold in the 45th Chess Olympiad in September.

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Gukesh had defeated Ding 7.5-6.5 in the ‘Best of 14 Games’ series in the World Championship match in Singapore to break Garry Kasparov’s 39-year-old record and become the youngest world champion in the history of the sport. Besides winning a total of US$1.3 million (Rs 11.45 crore) in cash prize, Gukesh was also awarded Rs 5 crore by Tamil Nadu Chief Minister MK Stalin at a felicitation event in Chennai shortly after he returned home.