sports desk6 minutes ago
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India’s 17-year-old Grandmaster D Gukesh created history by winning the Candidates Chess Tournament in Toronto this week. He has become the youngest player to challenge for the world title. Five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway had said before this tournament that Indian players will not be able to win the Candidates Chess Tournament this time under any circumstances. Especially D Gukesh will face a heavy defeat because his opponents are very strong, but this 17 year old young champion not only proved Magnus wrong but has now also become the youngest contender to become the World Champion. Gukesh will now compete with Ding Liren of China for the World Championship.
To bring Gukesh to this point, his parents also had to make a lot of sacrifices. When Gukesh started doing better in chess, his father, a doctor by profession, had to leave his job. In fact, due to tournaments happening abroad, he was not able to give time to the patients, so he closed his clinic. The disadvantage of this was that his income became limited. The burden of Gukesh’s tournament and family expenses fell on mother Padma. At that time Gukesh was not getting sponsors while the expense of playing tournaments abroad was very high. In such a situation, many times he had to take a loan to participate in the tournament.
His father Rajinikanth narrates an anecdote from a foreign tournament. When they took Gukesh to Europe in 2021, it took them almost 4 months to return to India. Actually Gukesh played 13 to 14 tournaments during this period. He had to miss the flight three times. Apart from chess, Gukesh also likes sports like cricket and badminton. He is very fond of eating.
D Gukesh (right) after winning the Candidates Chess Tournament.
Became the world’s second youngest Grand Master at the age of 12.
D Gukesh started playing chess at the age of 7. In 2015 he won the Under-9 Asian Schools Chess Championship. After this, in 2018 he won the World Youth Championship title in the Under-12 category. In 2017 he met the standards to become an International Master at the 34th Cappelle-la-Grande-Open.
After this, on January 15, 2019, at the age of 12 years, 7 months and 17 days, he became the second youngest Grand Master in the world. However, his record was broken by American Grand Master Abhimanyu Mishra. He became Grand Master in 12 years and 4 months. Gukesh is now the third youngest Grand Master in the world. At second place is Sergei Karjakin of Russia who became Grand Master in 12 years and 7 months. Gukesh has now become the youngest player in the world to win the Candidates Championship.
Started playing chess at the age of 7
Gukesh’s full name is Domaraju Gukesh. He was born in Chennai to Rajinikanth and Padma. Father is an eye, nose and throat specialist doctor by profession while mother is a microbiologist. Father Rajinikanth was a cricket player. Used to play cricket during college days. He also gave trials for state level selection, but due to family pressure, he left cricket and started studying medicine. Gukesh started playing chess at the age of seven. Seeing his son’s interest, Rajinikanth inspired him a lot. To avoid any problem in balancing sports and studies, he was exempted from regular studies after the fourth class. In an interview, Rajinikanth told that Gukesh has not given the annual exam since he started playing professional chess.
Interesting/Achievement: Left Vishwanathan Anand behind in ranking.
- According to his father, Gukesh plays about 250 tournament matches in a year whereas other players cannot play even 150 matches.
- To save money during the tournament in Europe, he slept with his father at the airport.
- The Corona period in 2020 proved to be financially good for his family. Chess tournaments were taking place online. In such a situation, travel expenses are saved. The father again got work in the hospital and his financial condition started improving.
- Viswanathan Anand has been overtaken in the top-10 international ranking of Indians in September 2023. This is the first time in 37 years that Vishwanathan Anand has been out of the top 10 rankings.
- He is the youngest player in the world to reach 2750 in the international chess rating.