Who is Gukesh Dommaraju? Youngest-ever undisputed chess world champion
GUKESH Dommaraju is one of the world’s greatest chess players and one of the sport’s most famous stars.
On December 12, 2024, he became the youngest-ever undisputed chess world champion when he defeated Ding Liren in a thrilling match.
Training regime
Gukesh was born on May 29, 2006, in Chennai, India.
His father Dr Rahinikanth was an ENT surgeon and his mother Dr Padma was a microbiologist.
Gukesh started to learn how to play chess at the age of seven and would train for an hour a day, three days a week by 2013.
In a 2024 interview, Gukesh shared that his “ultimate goal has always been to become the best player in the world”.
Chess champion
The chess player became a big name in the chess scene when he won the Under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships in 2015.
He went on to win the World Youth Chess Championships in 2018, in the Under-12 category, after earning the title of International Master in March 2017.
On January 15, 2019, Gukesh shocked the world.
He became the second youngest grand chessmaster in history at the age of 12 years, 7 months and 17 days.
The grandmaster was just 17-days-younger than the youngest grandmaster, Sergey Karjakin.
He has since been surpassed by Abhimanyu Mishra, making Gukesh the third youngest grand chessmaster in history.
Becoming a chess legend
In 2022, Gukesh won a gold medal at the 44th Chess Olympiad and was rated over 2700 for the first time.
That meant he was the third youngest player to pass the score of 2700, after Wei Yi and Alireza Firouzja.
On December 12, 2024, the star became the 18th World Chess Champion after defeating Ding Liren in a nailbiting match.
After taking home the title, he became the youngest undisputed chess world champion in history.
Ahead of the match, he said he just wanted to “focus on the process” and “enjoy the experience”.