D Gukesh, Chess Participant
Picture: Simon Lim / Afp; Photoimaging By: Kapil Kashyap
In 2013, D Gukesh had watched Magnus Carlsen beat Viswanathan Anand, India’s first Grandmaster, to win the World Championship held in his hometown of Chennai. Eleven years later, Gukesh scripted a fairytale ending to the story as he introduced dwelling the World Championship crown again to India as its youngest winner.
It took until the fifty fifth transfer of the ultimate recreation of the 14-match bout between defending champion Ding Liren and Gukesh, and a rookie error by the Chinese language Grandmaster, for {the teenager} to alter the course of historical past. “I’ve been dreaming about this and dwelling this second since I used to be six or seven. [Now] I’m dwelling my dream,” the 18-year-old mentioned in his post-match press convention.
Gukesh, who emerged out of India’s vibrant chess ecosystem studded with 85 Grandmasters, was a narrative ready to occur. Born to docs—father an ENT and mom a microbiologist—he took to chess on the age of seven. As soon as Gukesh turned proficient, his father gave up his job to journey with him to tournaments and he was pulled out of formal education to concentrate on the game. It’s a name that his dad and mom questioned often, however their conviction was vindicated when Gukesh turned 12 and have become the nation’s youngest Grandmaster. He hasn’t regarded again since. Earlier within the 12 months, he received a person and a crew gold within the Chess Olympiad—his efficiency ranking of 3056 was the very best within the event.
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His composure and his means to stay unfazed are distinctive, and he brings the identical perspective and technique to each recreation, says Anand, himself a five-time World Champion and the torchbearer of India’s chess revolution. “As an illustration, his win in Recreation 11 [of the World Championship] was met by fairly a stinging defeat in Recreation 12, however he took it in his stride and stored working,” says Anand, who mentors Gukesh within the WestBridge Anand Chess Academy. “There’s a form of consistency that you simply see with him and that makes him very sturdy as a result of, if you happen to’re his opponent, you are feeling it’s onerous to interrupt him,” he provides.
(This story seems within the 07 February, 2025 challenge
of Forbes India. To go to our Archives, click here.)
