Gukesh D is an Indian chess player who is known for bagging a gold medal at the Chess Olympiad in August 2022.
Wiki/Biography
Dommaraju Gukesh was born on Monday, 29 May 2006 (age 16 years; as of 2022) in Chennai. He attended Velammal Vidyalaya, Mel Ayanambakkam, Chennai.
Physical Appearance
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
Gukesh’s father’s name is Rajnikanth, who is an ENT surgeon.
Gukesh D’s father
His mother’s name is Padma, who is a microbiologist.
Gukesh D with his mother
Career
Gukesh started playing chess at the age of seven. His FIDE rating is 2699 as of August 2022. In 2015, he won the Asian School Chess Championships under-9. In 2017, he participated in the National Championship and won the title in the under-11 category in Pune.
Gukesh D wins National Championship 2017
In 2018, he competed in the under-12 category and won the World Youth Chess Championship.
Gukesh D posing after winning World Youth Chess Championships 2018
In March 2018, he won the title of International Master at Cappelle-la-Grande Open. He won five gold medals in the championship in U-12 individual rapid and blitz, U-12 team rapid and blitz, and the U-12 individual classical formats at Youth Chess Championships 2018.
Gukesh D with five medals won at Youth Chess Championships 2018
In 2019, he won the title of the second-youngest grandmaster. In 2022, he became the youngest grandmaster in India. In June 2021, he won the Gelfand Challenge in Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour. In 2022, he won a gold medal at the Chess Olympiad.
Favourites
- Chess player(s): Bobby Fischer, Viswanathan Anand
Facts/Trivia
- He takes training under Vishnu Prasanna.
- In an interview, his mother said that Gukesh showed tantrums at home while eating food, but he ate whatever he got during the tournaments. In the interview, his mother talked about his passion for chess and said,
He became crazy about chess from a very young age. The passion only grew stronger with each passing year, but not at the expense of other interests. He also follows and plays cricket, reads books (mostly biographies of sportspersons), plays badminton and table tennis, and enjoys get-togethers with friends and family during his time off from the board.”
- In an interview, he said that his father was his biggest supporter because he left his job as a doctor to accompany Gukesh to his tournaments. In an interview, his father talked about this and said,
It was quite tough to handle my profession and his career. I took a backseat to support my son. My wife goes to work. It’s quite tough but when you get these results we are happy for all the sacrifices we have done for him.”
- According to his father, Gukesh followed R Praggnanandhaa’s style of play during the initial days of his career.