Gukesh D

Dommaraju Gukesh (born 29 May 2006), more commonly known as Gukesh D, is an Indian chess grandmaster. As of 20 June 2024, he is ranked No. 7 in the world by the International Chess Federation. A chess prodigy, he is the third-youngest Grandmaster in history, the third-youngest to reach a chess rating of 2700, the youngest to reach a rating of 2750 and the youngest winner of the FIDE Candidates tournament.

Gukesh won the 2024 Candidates Tournament, making him the youngest contender to compete for the title of World Chess Champion.

Early life
Gukesh was born into a Telugu family on 29 May 2006 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His parents hail from the Godavari delta region of Andhra Pradesh. His father, Dr. Rajinikanth, is an ear, nose and throat surgeon, and his mother, Dr. Padma, is a microbiologist. He learned to play chess at the age of seven. He studies at the Velammal Vidyalaya school, Mel Ayanambakkam, Chennai.

Gukesh began practicing and playing chess in 2013 for one hour, three days a week. He would then participate and play tournaments on weekends after his good performance was acknowledged by his chess teachers.

20152019
Gukesh won the Under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships in 2015 and the World Youth Chess Championships 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 U-12 individual classical formats. He completed the requirements for the title of International Master in March 2017 at the 34th Cappelle-la-Grande Open.

On 15 January 2019, at the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days, Gukesh became the then second-youngest grandmaster in history, only surpassed by Sergey Karjakin by 17 days. The record has since been beaten by Abhimanyu Mishra, making Gukesh the third-youngest.

2021
In June 2021, he won the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour, Gelfand Challenge, scoring 14 out of 19 points.

2022
In August 2022, he played the 44th Chess Olympiad  and initially had a perfect score of 8/8, notably defeating US No. 1 Fabiano Caruana in the eighth match. He finished with a score of 9 out of 11, earning the gold medal on the 1st board and his team India-2 finished third in the tournament

In September 2022, Gukesh reached a rating of over 2700 for the first time, with a rating of 2726. This made him the third-youngest player to pass 2700, after Wei Yi and Alireza Firouzja.

In October 2022 during the Aimchess Rapid tournament, Gukesh became the youngest player to beat Magnus Carlsen since the latter became World Champion.

2023
In February 2023, Gukesh participated in the first edition of the WR Masters tournament in Düsseldorf, where he finished on 5½/9, tying for first place with Levon Aronian and Ian Nepomniachtchi. He came second to Aronian in the tiebreaks.

In the August 2023 rating list, Gukesh became the youngest player ever to reach a rating of 2750.

Gukesh participated in the Chess World Cup 2023. He reached the quarter-finals before being defeated by Magnus Carlsen.

In the September 2023 rating list, Gukesh officially surpassed Viswanathan Anand as the top-ranked Indian player, marking the first time in 37 years that Anand was not the top-ranked Indian player.

In December 2023, with the end of the FIDE Circuit, Gukesh qualified for the 2024 Candidates Tournament. Gukesh had placed second in the Circuit, but Fabiano Caruana, the winner, had already qualified through the World Cup. He became the third youngest player to play in a Candidates tournament, behind Bobby Fischer and Magnus Carlsen.

2024: Candidates winner
In January 2024, Gukesh participated in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024. He scored 8.5/13 to finish in a 4-way tie for first place. In the twelfth round, he had a winning position against R Praggnanandhaa, but blundered into a threefold repetition. In tiebreaks, he defeated Anish Giri in semifinals but lost to Wei Yi in the finals.

In April 2024, Gukesh participated in the 2024 Candidates Tournament. Gukesh won games against R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi playing as black, Alireza Firouzja playing as white, and Nijat Abasov playing as both black and white. His only loss was his game with black against Firouzja. This gave him five wins, one loss and eight draws, for a score of 9/14, winning the tournament and qualifying for the 2024 World Championship match against Ding Liren. He is the youngest ever winner of the Candidates and will be the youngest player to ever play in a World Chess Championship match.

Awards

 * 2023: Player of the Year by Asian Chess Federation
 * 2023: Best Young Achievers (Male) by Sportstar Aces Award