Meet India’s newest child chess superstar – D. Gukesh

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Who is D. Gukesh? The 16-year-old youngster from Chennai, has been winning hearts at the 44^th Chess Olympiad with his recent matches against top-rated players such as Fabiano Caruana(USA), Alexei Shirov (Spain) and Gabriel Sargissian (Armenia).

With a performance rating of 3335 at the end of the 7^th round, and a victory over Caruana, “Anything is possible with the way Gukesh is playing,” according to his coach R.B. Ramesh. GM Pravin Thipsay, of the All India Chess Federation(AICF), concurs, and feels that Gukesh could launch a successful bid for the coveted title of World Champion in a few years. According to him, the young prodigy has climbed the rankings fast and his meteoric rise could be a source of inspiration for other young chess stars of India, such as Arjun Erigaisi, R. Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin.

While all of them have tasted both immense success and fame recently, D. Gukesh was the first to reach the elite rating of 2700 Elo points. This makes him the fourth youngest chess player to do so - after Wei Yi, Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja, and only the sixth Indian ever – including Viswanathan Anand, Krishnan Sasikiran, Harikrishna, VidithGujrathi and B. Adhiban. With eight wins already at the 44^th Chess Olympiad, D. Gukesh is one of India’s brightest hopes and a definitive force to watch out for in the years ahead.