In April, D Gukesh set a new record by becoming the youngest winner of the FIDE Candidates tournament.
D Gukesh made history by becoming the youngest Chess World Champion at 18 years old, defeating Ding Liren in the 14th round of their World Championship match in Singapore on Thursday.
In achieving this, he shattered the previous record held by the legendary Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he defeated then-champion Anatoly Karpov in 1985.
Additionally, D Gukesh became the youngest winner of the FIDE Candidates tournament in April. He topped the table with nine points in the eight-player competition, making him only the second Indian to qualify for a World Championship final, following in the footsteps of five-time World Champion and his mentor at the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy, Viswanathan Anand.
Following a draw with Hikaru Nakamura in Round 14, his advancement depended on the outcome of the final game between Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi and top-seeded American Fabiano Caruana. When their match concluded in a draw, D Gukesh secured a place in the World Chess Championship final against China’s reigning champion, Ding Liren.
How did the journey start?
D Gukesh, a native of Chennai, embarked on his chess journey at the age of seven. Introduced to the game at school, he became a FIDE-rated player just six months after starting to learn chess.
His first taste of international success came in 2015 when he won the U-9 Asian Schools Chess Championship, earning the Candidate Master (CM) title as well.
The chess prodigy went on to win the U-12 World Youth Chess Championship in 2018 and captured five gold medals at the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championships in the U-12 categories—covering individual rapid and blitz, team rapid and blitz, and individual classical formats.
He achieved the requirements for the International Master (IM) title in March 2018, and by January 2019, he became the second youngest Grandmaster at 12 years, seven months, and 17 days old, narrowly missing Sergey Karjakin’s record by 17 days. This record was eventually surpassed by Abhimanyu Mishra, making D Gukesh the third youngest.
During the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai in 2022, he scored nine points out of eleven, earning an individual gold medal and helping India secure a bronze medal. In the same year, he surpassed the 2700 rating mark for the first time, reaching a total of 2726, making him the third youngest to achieve this milestone after Wei Yi and Alireza Firouzja.
Making history
He also made history as the youngest player to defeat Magnus Carlsen at the Aim Chess Rapid tournament since the Norwegian became World Champion.
Riding this momentum into 2023, D Gukesh became the youngest player to achieve a rating of 2750. Shortly thereafter, he surpassed Viswanathan Anand, becoming the top-ranked Indian player for the first time in 37 years.
In December 2023, as the FIDE Circuit concluded, D Gukesh secured qualification for the 2024 Candidates Tournament. Although he placed second in the Circuit, the winner, Fabiano Caruana, had already qualified through the World Cup, allowing D Gukesh to make it to the Candidates tournament.
D Gukesh became the third youngest player, following Bobby Fischer and Magnus Carlsen, to participate in a Candidates tournament.
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