 "Who is D Gukesh, India’s chess sensation and the youngest Candidates champion ever")
D Gukesh created history in Toronto on Sunday after holding world No 3 Hikaru Nakamura to a draw to become the youngest champion in the history of the prestigious Candidates Chess Tournament. The 17-year-old thus earned the right to challenge China’s Ding Liren for the title of ‘world chess champion’ later this year.
Gukesh finished with nine points out of a total of 14 on Sunday, but it wasn’t until Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi played out a draw in the other keenly-followed contest that the Indian teenager was confirmed as Liren’s opponent in the World Chess Championship that will take place later in 2024.
Read | How much prize money did D Gukesh earn by winning Candidates?
Gukesh not only became the second Indian after the legendary Viswanathan Anand to win the prestigious tournament, he also broke the iconic Garry Kasparov’s record for the youngest Candidates champion that had stood for 40 years. Kasparov had achieved the feat at the age of 22 when he defeated fellow Russian Grandmaster Anatoly Karpov in 1984.
So who is Gukesh, India’s latest chess sensation? Here’s everything you need to know about him:
Who is D Gukesh?
Dommaraju Gukesh was born on 29 May, 2006 in Chennai in the state of Tamil Nadu — which has a long history of producing chess stars, from Anand to breakout stars Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa, although Gukesh’s family originally hails from Andhra Pradesh.
Gukesh, whose father is a doctor and mother a microbiologist, learned to play chess at the age of seven, and from thereon, there was no looking back for him.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsGukesh made waves even before his age hit double digits, winning the Asian School Chess Championships at the age of nine. Three years later, he would bag the World Youth Chess Championships title in the U-12 category, and would go on to complete the requirements of an International Master later that year.
His rapid rise in the sport continued the following year as he nearly broke Sergey Karjakin’s record for the youngest chess Grand Master of all time, attaining the status at the age of 12 years, 7 months and 17 days and missing out on Karjakin’s feat by just 17 days.
More recently, Gukesh had dominated headlines for replacing Anand as the top-ranked Indian chess player during the ratings list that was released on September 2023, ending the latter’s reign at the top of the list that had lasted a staggering 37 years!
Youngest Chess Champion
— RooP (@Roop_25ms) April 22, 2024
Gukesh Dommaraju 🇮🇳🫡
He said and he did this
So emotional for him man
And he is tooo humble rn also 😭😭😭#fidecandidates2024 #FIDECandidates #GukeshFTW #Gukesh pic.twitter.com/P7tupfREcB
In an interview with chess expert Sagar Shah, Gukesh had expressed his desire to one day become the youngest world champion. The kind of form that he’s in at the moment and given his rapid rise in the sport, it might just become a reality later this year.
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