At 18 years old, Gukesh Dommaraju often referred to as Gukesh D of India, is the youngest person in the history of chess to have ever qualified to become a contender for the title of World Champion. He became a contender following his victory in the 2024 Toronto Candidates Tournament. Dommaraju achieved this feat at 17 years of age to be specific. He will face the world champion Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren in Singapore beginning November 25.
Gukesh D became a chess grandmaster at age 12. He was born on May 29, 2006 in Chennai, the home of some of India’s finest players including five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand. Having learned chess at the age of seven in school, he earned his FIDE Master title when he won the Under-9 Asian Schools Chess Championship in 2015. In 2018 at just 11 years old, Gukesh D became an International Master. He clinched the grandmaster title at the 17th Delhi International GM Open on January 15, 2019.
He was 12 years, 7 months and 17 days old at the time. In chess, counting the days after the years and months is important especially if one is a major contender for a title. In Gukesh D’s case he became the second youngest person to earn the grandmaster title after Ukraine’s Sergey Karjakin. He missed being the youngest grandmaster ever by a few days. Karjakin became the youngest at 12 years 7 months and 0 days, and Gukesh became one at 12 years, 7 months and 17 days. In many instances, young grandmasters become high achievers in the world of chess. For example Karjakin, being the youngest grandmaster ever, played for the World Championship in 2016 against Norway’s Magnus Carlsen. He lost the tie-break match but played to a 6-6 draw in the classical encounter in New York. Incidentally, Carlsen himself was a teenaged grandmaster, cementing the fact that both were youthful achievers.
Gukesh D’s coach at the time when he was preparing for his grandmaster title, Vishnu Prasanna, noted that his “strategic supremacy and unique understanding” as well as his work ethic, set him apart from others. Over a 16-month period Gukesh D played an impressive 276 games in 30 tournaments across 13 countries to achieve his grandmaster norm thereby emphasizing his determination to excel.
To be continued…
