Dr. Rajinikanth and his wife, Dr. Padma, regularly played chess together as a hobby at their parents' home in India. Their son, Gukesh, was always by their side, watching intently with wide eyes as each piece was strategically moved on the board. The boy was fascinated by the calculated black and white dance in front of him.
“He will be fascinated by how the pieces work,” says Rajini. Athletic.
In the coming weeks, the barely-adult Gukesh could become the youngest world chess champion in history. Having qualified for the 2024 World Chess Championship in Singapore this month, the 18-year-old has already become the youngest challenger to compete for a world title.
It was a meteoric rise for a player who was still only ranked as a junior until the summer of 2022. “It happened by chance,” says Rajini, the surgeon. He says his son's success was not preordained. Neither he nor his spouse, a microbiologist, ever planned or dreamed that their son would become a phenomenon in the sport. “We never realized that he had any special talent,” he explains. “It was schools, teachers and coaches who started saying, 'This kid has talent, he should pursue it further.'”
From Monday, Gukesh will face title holder Ding Li Ren, 32, in the classic game number 14, which could last until December 13. For the first time in 138 years, two athletes from Asia will compete in the finals.
Gukesh, who hails from the city of Chennai on India's south coast, a hotbed of chess talent, built his chances of becoming the first teenager to win a world title by winning the eight-a-side 2024 Candidates Tournament in Toronto. The 17-year-old made his first appearance in the final round of World Championship qualifying, overcoming the odds and defeating five more big-name players in higher rankings to take the title with a record of 5 wins, 1 loss, and 1 loss. I got the chance. They finished with 9 points out of 14 with 8 draws (1 point for a win, 0.5 points for a draw, 0 points for a loss). If he wins in Singapore, he will become India's second world chess champion after Viswanathan Anand.
Ding plays against Gukesh at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in the Netherlands in January 2023. (Photo by Sylvia Lederer/Xinhua News Agency, Getty Images)
Perhaps such success was not surprising, considering the records he broke as a child. Still young enough to be included in the Junior World Rankings of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), he is the world's top-ranked junior male player in classical chess, the longest period of competition.
It's also not the realm of fantasy that he can defeat the defending champion. Gukesh, who is ranked fifth in the world in this month's classical rankings, is in great form. Ding, currently ranked 23rd, has had a tough reign as world champion, including taking a nine-month hiatus from competition last year for mental health reasons. He hasn't won a classic match since January and has only played 44 games since becoming world champion.
“I'm worried that I'll lose big. I hope it doesn't happen,” Ding told chess app TakeTakeTake in September. In a press conference this week, Ding said he was not at his best, but said he was in a state of “peace” and would look back on his past best performances for inspiration.
However, Ding has been better in the classic head-to-head matches between the pair, with two wins and one draw, and his highest FIDE rating of 2,816 is higher than Gukesh's rating (2,794, reached in October).
However, Magnus Carlsen, a five-time world champion who has chosen not to defend his world title in 2023 but is still ranked as the best classical player in the world, backed Gukesh's victory and said Din was faster. He emphasized the importance of getting off to a good start.
“There's no way Dinh will lose his first match…I'm hesitant because from what I've seen of Dinh over the past year and a half, I don't think he'll come back from losing his first match. However, I agree. He will be the first to win the match, but I am not very confident,” he told chess.com. The Norwegian added: “The only way there will be fewer decisive matches is if Din keeps getting chances and missing them. We might see some bloodshed.”
Known as 'Gukesh D', he started playing chess at the age of seven and won various junior tournaments, becoming the second youngest grandmaster at the time at 12 years, 7 months and 17 days. Grandmaster is awarded to players for life by the governing body FIDE and is the highest title other than world champion. Today, there are over 1,850.
This year, he became the third youngest player to reach a FIDE rating of 2,700 and the youngest player to reach a rating of 2,750 after winning two gold medals at the Chess Olympics (a biennial international tournament held in Budapest, Hungary). It became. .
Gukesh said his youth could be seen as a negative or a positive heading into the final, but in a press conference this week Ding said his opponent played maturely “in many aspects” . Known as an aggressive player, Gukesh recently revealed that he is a fan of the sitcom Friends, and is one of many young players making a name for themselves in the sport. Ding recently described the new generation of players as fearless. “There are a lot of players who were born after 2000. They play without fear and are willing to try different strategies that previous generations might not have had,” he said, according to The Straits Times. .
Gukesh being welcomed at Chennai International Airport after winning two gold medals at the FIDE Chess Olympics (Photo by R. Satish Babu/AFP, via Getty)
One of the coaches who informed Gukesh's parents of their son's special abilities and helped him grow was Indian grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna, who coached the prodigy from 2017 to 2023.
The two first met after Lord Vishnu hosted a small training camp for students of Gukesh's Velammal Vidyalaya school, which has a reputation for producing chess talent. Cultivating strong mental powers was a major focus for Lord Vishnu. “We talked a lot about things other than chess, about how people think and behave in extreme sports,” Vishnu said. Athletic.
“We talked a lot about Alex Honnold (American free solo climber) and a lot of extreme athletes and what kind of mindset they try to maintain. I think chess techniques are volatile. We have always emphasized that there is no one correct technique, as there are many different ones that can be tried, but there may be a correct way of thinking that guarantees performance, and it is not about chess itself, but between players. That’s the difference.”
His parents had no involvement in his training, instead trying to maintain a stable life outside of sports. However, with the approval of Gukesh's parents, Vishnu experimented with his approach and resisted the use of computer or chess engine aids until Gukesh became a grandmaster. The purpose was to encourage Gukesh to think for himself.
Chess also had a profound influence on the teenager. “He used to be very naughty,” says Rajini.
“He was an only child, so he had to get whatever he wanted from time to time. He used to be prone to tantrums, but since he started playing chess he has become very careful. How is it now? He became calmer, more patient, and more observant. Chess changed him.”
Playing chess requires concentration and can cause mental fatigue. But Gukesh's passion for the game also saw him play 276 matches in 30 tournaments in 13 countries in 16 months, with 10am to 5pm sessions with Lord Vishnu in between matches. be.
The longest match at the World Chess Championship was between Carlsen and Ian Nepomniatchi in 2021, which took 7 hours and 45 minutes. Such mental focus can be damaging. After the world championship “Moscow Marathon” between Anatoly Karpov and Garry Kasparov, which lasted five months and 48 matches, Karpov told a Russian magazine that he had lost 10 kg (22 lbs) in weight.
Gukesh could become the first Indian world champion since Viswanathan Anand (Photo by Marcus Brandt/Photo Associates via Getty Images)
In Singapore, each classic game follows a timekeeping schedule of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the remaining games. Starting from the 41st move, it will be in 30 second increments. Players must maintain good posture, balance, and think deeply about their movements. A score of 7.5 or higher will win the world title. If the players are tied after 14 games in the Classic, a tiebreaker will be played on December 13th. Vishnu says the right mindset is most important.
“This is probably the biggest stage anyone can reach. When you get there, everything is nerve-wracking,” he says.
“He has thrived under pressure. So far, he has always delivered when he has a lot to lose and when things are on the line.”
History is at stake, and a lot of money is at stake. The total prize pool for the World Championship is $2.5 million, with each player earning $200,000 for each game they win. The remaining winnings will be divided equally between the players. This is a significant increase compared to the 48,000 euros ($50,489 in current currency) Gukesh earned for winning the Challenger tournament.
Even if Gukesh remains unfazed by the Singaporean spotlight, his parents will not let their guard down. Padma doesn't watch her son's games because it's too stressful. Instead, she waits for the results.
“It's too stressful for us, and I want to do it too, but it's too hard to leave, so it's like hide and seek. So I only look once every half hour or hour, and I don't like him. Just to see what position they are in,” says Rajni.
Gukesh was accompanied by his father to tournaments all over the world. Although it was a sacrifice, the family has few regrets.
“We were traveling for tournaments two-thirds of the year. His mother had very little time to spend with us. That's one of the things we regret. Other than that, I'm very happy and very lucky with how things turned out,'' says Rajini.
Coach Vishnu witnessed the pursuit of greatness. “There's no clear path to replicating what he did,” he says. “When you sacrifice a teenager's normal childhood, normal school life, normal social life with a kind of hyper-focus, you give up all that and focus on the main thing, which is getting better at chess.” is.”
Chess geniuses are on the rise, but Gukesh has persevered to reach his full potential. “I had faith that he would do well, and yet he exceeded my expectations,” Lord Vishnu says.
Gukesh is following in the footsteps of fellow Chennai great Anand, a five-time world champion and currently vice-president of FIDE. Fittingly, Gukesh overtook him in the chess rankings last year, depriving him of the top spot as India's highest-ranked player, which he had held for 37 years (although that honor is currently held by Arjun Eligaishi, who is ranked No. 4). ).
Anand created an era by winning four consecutive world championships from 2007 to 2012.
“To compete in the world championships and beat the contenders is to try to fulfill Anand's role. That is what my generation tried and failed to do,” says Vishnu, 35.
“So it's very emotional to see Gukesh trying to bring India back to the top of world chess. When I look back, I think, 'That was the kid who came to train with me.' .”
(Top image: Andrzej Iwanczuk/NurPhoto via Getty Images; Design Eamonn Dalton)
