7 Interesting Facts About Gukesh D, Youngest World Chess Champion
Producer: Mehak Pal | Editor: Manuj Yadav December 13, 2024
India’s Gukesh Dommaraju made history by becoming the youngest chess world champion after beating China’s Ding Liren. Here are some interesting facts about the Indian chess prodigy.
Gukesh D was born into a Telugu family in Chennai. His father, Rajinikanth, specializes as an ear, nose, and throat surgeon, while his mother, Padma, is a microbiologist.
Gukesh’s passion for the 64-square chess board prompted his parents to stop him from attending school full-time after Class IV.
His early success included a gold-winning performance in the under-9 Asian school championship and the World Youth Chess Championships in 2018 in the Under 12 category.
In 2019, during a tournament in New Delhi Gukesh became the second youngest Grandmaster in history.
In September 2022, he reached a rating of over 2700 for the first time and one month later he also became the youngest player ever to beat Magnus Carlsen.
In September 2023, Gukesh became India’s top-ranked player in the FIDE rankings, surpassing five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand.
Viswanathan Anand has been a mentor to Gukesh since his early days. In the lead-up to the World Chess Championship, Gukesh enlisted the services of renowned mind guru Paddy Upton.
