Gukesh Dommaraju

Gukesh Dommaraju (born 29 May 2006) is an Indian chess grandmaster and the reigning World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, Gukesh is the youngest undisputed world champion, the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE rating of 2750, doing so at the age of 17, and the third-youngest to have surpassed 2700 Elo at the age of 16. He earned the title of grandmaster at the age of 12 and is the third-youngest grandmaster in chess history.

Gukesh started playing chess at the age of 7. He won the under-12 title at the World Youth Chess Championship in 2018, and multiple gold medals at the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championship. He became an International Master in March 2017. On 15 January 2019, at the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days, he became the second-youngest grandmaster in the history of the game, after Sergey Karjakin. He was part of the Indian team that won the silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games in the men's team competition.

Gukesh won the team bronze and the individual gold medal at the 44th Chess Olympiad in 2022. In the September 2023 rating list, Gukesh became the top-rated Indian player, ending Viswanathan Anand's 37-year record. In the 45th Chess Olympiad in 2024, he won both team and individual gold medals. In 2024, he became the youngest winner of the Candidates Tournament and successfully challenged Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship, becoming the 18th and youngest undisputed world champion, at the age of 18 years and 195 days.

Early life

Birth and background

Gukesh Dommaraju was born on 29 May 2006 in Chennai into a Telugu family. His mother, Padmakumari, is a microbiologist, and his father, Rajinikanth, is an ENT surgeon who moved to Chennai to pursue his medical career. Gukesh studied at the Velammal Vidyalaya School in Mel Ayanambakkam, Chennai.

Gukesh's family hails from the village of Chenchuraju Kandriga, near Satyavedu in the Tirupati district of Andhra Pradesh. His father later settled in Chennai to pursue a medical career, where he married Padmakumari.

Chess beginnings

Gukesh learned to play chess at the age of seven, and eventually began structured one-hour sessions three times a week. He dropped out of school after Class IV (in elementary school) to focus on his chess career. In 2017, his father quit his job to travel with Gukesh to various tournaments; Gukesh was sponsored by his parents' friends at this time, support about which he has often spoken since. His extraordinary talent was recognized institutionally early on, and he became one of the many beneficiaries of the robust Indian chess ecosystem. Gukesh studied at Velammal Vidyalaya Ayanambakkam, along with top player R Praggnanandhaa.

Gukesh's childhood coach, GM Vishnu Prasanna, restrained him from using chess engines for analysis and training during the formative years of his career, in what has been described as a "radical experiment", with goal of developing independent analytical skills and intuition; he started using engines after crossing the 2500 rating threshold.

Career

2015–2021: Beginnings

Gukesh won the under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships in 2015. He won the World Youth Chess Championship in 2018 in the under-12 category. In the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championship, he won a record five gold medals in the under-12 events in individual rapid, blitz and classical formats, and the team rapid and blitz competitions. He completed the requirements for the title of International Master in March 2017 at the 34th Cappelle-la-Grande Open.

On 15 January 2019, Gukesh became the then second-youngest grandmaster in the history of the game at the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days, behind Sergey Karjakin. In June 2021, he won the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour, Gelfand Challenge, scoring 14 out of 19 points.

2022–2023: Olympiad gold and Candidates qualification

In August 2022, Gukesh won the individual gold medal on the first board in the open event at the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai with a score of 9 out of 11. He was part of the India-2 team which won the bronze medal in the same tournament. In September 2022, he was part of the Indian team that won the silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games in the men's team competition. In the same month, Gukesh reached a FIDE rating of over 2700 for the first time with a rating of 2726, and became the third-youngest to do so after Wei Yi and Alireza Firouzja. During the Aimchess Rapid tournament in October 2022, Gukesh became the youngest to beat Magnus Carlsen, the reigning World Chess Champion at that time.

In August 2023, Gukesh became the youngest player ever to reach a rating of 2750, breaking Carlsen's record. In the Chess World Cup 2023 at Baku, he advanced to the quarterfinals, where he lost to Carlsen. In the September 2023 rating list, Gukesh surpassed Viswanathan Anand as the top-ranked Indian player, marking the first time in 37 years that Anand was not the top-ranked Indian player.

In December 2023, Gukesh qualified for the 2024 Candidates Tournament, to be conducted to identify the challenger to Ding Liren for the World Chess Championship. He finished 2nd in the FIDE Circuit behind Fabiano Caruana, and took the qualifying spot reserved for the winner, as Caruana had already qualified through the Chess World Cup. He was the third-youngest player to qualify for a Candidates tournament, behind Bobby Fischer and Carlsen.

2024: Olympiad double gold and World Championship

In January, Gukesh finished in a four-way tie for the first place in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024 with a score of 8½ in 13 rounds. He defeated Anish Giri in the semifinals before losing to Wei Yi in the finals of the tiebreaker.

In April, Gukesh was part of the eight-player Candidates Tournament held in Toronto. He won five games against R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi playing as Black, Firouzja playing as White, and Nijat Abasov playing as both Black and White. With a single loss coming against Firouzja, he finished with nine points from 14 rounds to win the tournament. He was the youngest-ever winner of the Candidates tournament.

In September, Gukesh took part in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest as part of the Indian team. He did not lose a single match and won the individual gold medal with a score of nine across ten rounds. His performance on board one helped India to win their first-ever team gold medal at the Olympiad. As a result of the win, Gukesh entered the top-five in the FIDE rankings for the first time on 1 October 2024.

The 2024 World Chess Championship was held in November–December 2024 between Gukesh and Ding Liren. Gukesh scored three wins against two wins for Ding, and nine draws in the 14 classical rounds of the tournament. He won the 14th and final match on 12 December 2024, and as a result, the World Chess Championship by a scoreline of 7½–6½. The win made him the youngest undisputed World Chess Champion, breaking the record previously held by Garry Kasparov. FIDE commented on Gukesh's gameplay as having "near-perfect accuracy", and Ding reacted that it was his best tournament of the year, and that he had no regrets in losing the title to Gukesh. Gukesh’s team included grandmasters Grzegorz Gajewski, Radosław Wojtaszek, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Jan Klimkowski, Pentala Harikrishna, and Vincent Keymer, along with his mental coach Paddy Upton.

2025

On 17 January, Gukesh received the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award from President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for his World Championship accomplishment. He was 18 years, 7 months, and 20 days old when he received the award. He was also the youngest ever recipient of the award, breaking the record previously held by Abhinav Bindra.

In January, Gukesh tied for first with R Praggnanandhaa in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025 with a score of 8½ in 13 rounds. He lost 2–1 in the blitz tiebreaker.

Gukesh participated in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of Chess960 tournaments. In February, he finished in eighth place in the first leg in Weissenhaus. In April, he finished eleventh in the second leg in Paris.

In May, Gukesh participated in the second leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2025 in Romania, where he finished in a four way tie for sixth.

At Norway Chess 2025, Gukesh finished 3rd, scoring 14.5 points. He had two notable victories: on his 19th birthday, Gukesh scored a notable victory over World No. 2 Hikaru Nakamura during the third round. After suffering defeats in the opening two rounds against World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen and compatriot Arjun Erigaisi, Gukesh bounced back by defeating Nakamura in 42 moves. The game marked his first win of the tournament and was particularly significant as he managed to put Nakamura, known for his rapid and blitz prowess, under considerable time pressure. Speaking after the game, Gukesh credited improved time management for the win and described the result as a fresh start to the event. On 1 June, Gukesh defeated Carlsen in the 6th round.