Dommaraju Gukesh Profile: Dommaraju Gukesh, who has created history by becoming the World Chess Champion at the age of just 18. He became the youngest chess champion in history by defeating Ding Liren of China. In the same year, apart from winning the Candidates Tournament, he also hoisted the Indian flag in the Chess Olympiad. He has brought glory to his country in the world of chess, but know here how the career of this young star started?
D Gukesh was born on 29 May 2006 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His father’s name is Rajnikanth, who is a nose, ear and throat specialist doctor by profession. His mother Padma is also a doctor by profession and her area of specialty is microbiology. Gukesh belongs to a Telugu speaking family and started playing chess at the age of just 7 years. He used to devote one hour each to chess three days a week. After impressing his chess teachers, he started participating in chess tournaments on weekends.
Won first championship at the age of 9
The first championship won by D Gukesh came in the year 2015, when he won the Under-9 Asian School Chess Championship at the age of just 9. Three years later, he won the World Youth Chess Championship at Under-12 level. At the age of 12, he won not one, not two but 5 gold medals in the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championship. In March 2017, he became the third youngest chess Grand Master in history by winning the International Master Tournament.
Left Viswanathan Anand behind
In the year 2023, Gukesh finally became India’s top ranked chess player, leaving behind Vishwanathan Anand. Anand who remained India’s top ranked player for 37 years. Continuing his brilliant journey, he became the youngest player in history to win the Candidates Tournament in 2024. Let us tell you that Gukesh is only the second Indian after Vishwanathan Anand to win the World Chess Championship. Anand had the distinction of being world champion a total of four times.
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18 year old D Gukesh created history by becoming world chess champion, PM Modi congratulated like this
