Who is GM Gukesh, the World's Youngest Chess Champion from Chennai, India?

At the age when many teens in India get their driving licenses, this chess player secured the highest chess championship title. Gukesh Dommaraju, a young boy from Tamil Nadu's Chennai, achieved this feat at the age of 18 when he defeated defending champion Ding Liren from China in a nail-biting match in the FIDE World Chess Championship 2024. He has already added other noteworthy achievements to his hat at this age. Let's see Gukesh's journey from becoming the youngest Chess Grand Master of India to becoming the youngest World Chess Champion. 

The Beginning of his Career 

Gukesh Dommaraju was born on 29 May 2006 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. He started learning chess at the age of 7 when he was introduced to chess by his school. This school, which is part of the Velammal group of schools across Chennai, is responsible for talents like GMs Murali Karthikeyan, Aravindh Chithambaram and most famously, Praggnanandhaa R. Gukesh’s first coach at the school, Mr Bhaskar, helped the youngster become a FIDE-rated player within six months of learning the game.

Big Feats

After training for a few years, he won the 2015 Asian School Chess Championships in the under-9 section and earned the candidate master (CM) title. After getting the IM norms - which require a performance rating of at least 2450 achieved over a minimum of nine games, Gukesh became an international master at 11 years, nine months and nine days old.

On January 15, 2019, Gukesh became the youngest Indian and the second-youngest chess grandmaster in the history of chess by scoring his third GM norm at the 17th Delhi International Grandmaster Open. He was 12 years, 7 months and 17 days old at the time, which means he missed breaking the record of being the youngest GM in chess's history by just 17 days which is held by Karjakin.

Other Achievements 

Along with these big knocks, Gukesh has won numerous other tournaments and championships in his small yet illustrious career. He won the Cannes Chess Festival 2020 with an undefeated stint of matches. The young gun won team bronze and individual gold at the 2022 FIDE Chess Olympiad with an individual score of nine points out of 11. In 2023, in the eight-player knockout event, he defeated IM Emin Ohanyan, GM Pranav V, and GM Raunak Sadhwani to claim the Junior Speed Chess Championship title. Entering 2024, Gukesh was in the Candidates Tournament from where he made his space in the FIDE World Chess Championship. 

The World Championship between Gukesh and Ding Liren, a best-of-14 match which ran from November 25 to December 12, 2024, was a back-and-forth affair. After a dramatic turn of events between the players, the tie-breaker match would decide the winner. The match appeared imminent until Ding's 55th move, and three turns later, Gukesh was the world champion, making him the youngest World Chess Champion at the age of 18 years, 8 months, and 14 days old surpassing legendary players Garry Kasparov and Magnus Carlsen.