In a proud moment for India, D Gukesh on Monday became the youngest winner of the FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2024 held in Toronto, Canada. D Gukesh became the only the second Indian player to win the FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament after Vishwanathan Anand. Gukesh scored 9/14 points to seal first place. With this amazing victory, Gukesh will challenge the reigning World Champion Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship match. Now, the question arises Who is D Gukesh, the youngest-ever Chess World Championship contender? Below is everything you need to know-
Who is D Gukesh?
Hailing from Chennai, D Gukesh is a 17-year-old Indian Chess Prodigy who became the youngest-ever Chess World Championship contender. As per reports, D Gukesh's father Dr.Rajinikanth is an ENT specialist and his mother is a microbiologist. Gukesh was introduced to Chess at the age of 7. Ever since then, Gukesh has been playing Chess and winning multiple awards and honors. As per reports, D Gukesh studies at the Velammal Vidyalaya school, Mel Ayanambakkam, Chennai.
Talking about D Gukesh's achievements, he won the Under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships in 2015, and the World Youth Chess Championships in 2018 in the Under-12 category. Thereafter, Gukesh won five gold medals at the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championships, in the U-12 individual rapid and blitz, U-12 team rapid and blitz, and the U-12 individual classical formats.
Notably, Gukesh became the second-youngest grandmaster in history at the time, on 15 January 2019, at the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days. The Chennai-based Chess prodigy almost surpassed Sergey Karjakin as the youngest grandmaster ever, however, missed the record by 17 days.
D Gukesh is also active on social media. On Instagram, Gukesh often shares his videos and photos related to his Chess career. Gukesh enjoys 81.9K followers on Instagram (while writing).