From a school in Chennai to the World Championship match in Singapore
Gukesh Dommaraju, often referred to simply as Gukesh D, is the youngest person in the history of chess to become the contender for the title of World Champion, achieving this feat at just 17 years of age.
Born on May 29, 2006, in Chennai – the birthplace of several of India's top players, including the five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand – Gukesh learned chess in school at the age of seven. This ignited a passion for the game that would see him rapidly advance his FIDE rating and title, achieving remarkable tournament successes in only a decade.
Gukesh earned his FIDE Master title in 2015, after winning the Under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships. In March 2018 – just 11-year-old – he became an International Master. Gukesh clinched Grandmaster title at the 17th Delhi International Grandmaster Open on January 15, 2019, at the age of 12 years, seven months and 17 days, becoming the second-youngest person in history at the time (and the third-youngest ever) after Sergey Karjakin. His coach at the time, Indian GM Vishnu Prasanna, noted that Gukesh's "strategic supremacy and unique understanding", as well as his work ethic, set him apart from others. Over a 16-month period, Gukesh played an impressive 276 games in 30 tournaments across 13 countries to achieve his GM norms, underscoring his determination.
His early successes include winning the Under-12 World Youth Chess Championships as well as taking five gold medals at the Asian Youth Chess Championships, excelling in various formats (classical, rapid, blitz and team events). Gukesh captured global attention in 2022 when he won the individual gold at the FIDE Chess Olympiad, scoring an outstanding nine points out of 11 games and helping India to secure bronze in the event. That same year he crossed the 2700 ELO mark, becoming the third-youngest chess player to achieve this level (after Wei Yi and Alireza Firouzja), thus entering the realm of super-Grandmasters.
In 2023, he went even further, clearing the 2750 ELO bar in August and becoming the youngest player ever to do so, and then in September, he reached the world number eight, overtaking Viswanathan Anand as India's top-rated player, a title which Anand held for more than 37 years. That year, Gukesh finished second in the 2023 FIDE Circuit – a series of tournaments over the year – which secured him a spot at the 2024 Candidates (the winner, Fabiano Caruana had already qualified through the World Cup 2023).
In April 2024, in Toronto, Gukesh again surprised the chess world: in his first-ever appearance at the Candidates tournament, he won the event with a remarkable score of 9/14, becoming the youngest-ever challenger for the title of World Champion.
Gukesh's final grand appearance before the title match, was at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest where, playing on board one, he scored a phenomenal nine points out of ten, winning individual gold leading his team to their first-ever team gold in the event.
Beyond chess, Gukesh devotes significant time to meditation. As a child who would get "very upset after a game" if he lost, Gukesh worked hard to find his inner balance. In an interview with the British Chess Magazine in May, after his victory in Toronto, he reflected on how important mediating has become for his mental stability: "I started taking mental health seriously. Started doing yoga and meditating. Once I started doing that, I made sure it was done regularly, and it made a difference."
As the match in Singapore approaches, the question on the table is: can Gukesh defeat the reigning World Champion Ding Liren?
Despite recent successes, Gukesh doesn't have a favorable head-to-head record against the World Champion, Ding Liren. Out of five classical games, Ding has won two (both as Black, in 2023 and 2024), while the other three ended in draws, including a draw at the 2024 Sinquefield Cup. Gukesh's sole victory came in a Fischer Random game in 2024, but that format differs from classical chess he will be playing in Singapore.
In a press conference ahead of the match, Gukesh shared his thoughts on his opponent: "Ding is quite universal. Almost all the players at the top level have to be universal at this point. So, there are minute differences between all the players, and I'm trying my best to analyze them and use them to my advantage." As for predictions, the young Grandmaster remained pragmatic: "I don't believe in predictions and who are the favorites. I just think that whoever is able to show up every day as the best will win the game eventually."
Written by Milan Dinic
Photos: Michal Walusza, Lennart Ootes and John Saunders