– Runa Mukherjee Parikh (Ahmedabad)

Chennai’s chess prodigy D. Gukesh (17) is on a roll this year. In September, he ended former five-times world champion Viswanathan Anand’s 36-year reign in FIDE live ratings to become India’s top-ranked chess player. There’s more.

The world’s third youngest GM (grandmaster) and India’s youngest (12 years, 7 months, and 17 days), Gukesh brought home two silver medals in the chess (team) category in the recently concluded Asian Games 2023 in Hangzhou (China). Earlier in June, he was crowned Junior Speed Chess champion; in April, he won the World Chess Armageddon Asia & Oceania tournament in Berlin; and also bagged the Menorca Open (Spain) title in February.

The only child of medical practitioners — ENT specialist Dr. Rajani Kanth and microbiologist Padma — Gukesh is a class X student of the Velammal Vidyalaya, Chennai. “To topple my idol-mentor Vishwanathan Anand as India’s top-ranked player has been my greatest achievement so far. I attribute this success to extraordinary school and parental support,” he acknowledges.

Gukesh took to playing this complex mind game in school at age six under the tutelage of school coach V. Bhaskar. Recognising his natural aptitude for chess, his parents enrolled him in an academy run by Bhaskar’s senior, Vijayanand, under whom he trained till 2017 and achieved a FIDE rating of 2,300. Later, he trained briefly with Grand Masters Karthikeyan and Vishnu Prasanna. By age seven, he began competing and winning district and state-level championships and in 2018, was crowned the World Under-12 chess champion, a year after winning the Under-11 national championship.

Currently, Gukesh trains with Polish GM Grzegorz Gajewski and has enrolled in the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy (WACA), run by Viswanathan Anand. A believer in the adage that practice makes perfect, Gukesh’s daily regimen includes seven hours of practice.

High on confidence and focused on the path ahead, Gukesh is bullish about achieving his next goal. “I am determined to work towards realising my dream to become the youngest world champion,” says this young grandmaster.
Power to your elbow!