Gukesh: The Chennai Super King

One of the things that makes some sporting triumphs look bigger than the others is the surprise factor.

India's 1983 World Cup win, Boris Becker's 1985 Wimbledon victory, Spain's FIFA Women’s World Cup success last year always get to be talked about in extra glow because of the sheer unexpectedness of the eventual verdict.

In that sense, the 17-year-old D Gukesh's epoch-making accomplishment at the Candidates Chess Tournament in Toronto last night (21 April) — he is now the youngest-ever challenger to the world chess title, bettering the record of Russian icon Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he qualified for the finals 40 years ago — had not much of a surprise.

Going into the fancied contest, he was one of the contenders, and with his consistent performance all through the taxing tournament, he ended up with 9 points out of the possible 14.

For the record, the others in the race, the American Fabiano Caruana, Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi and another American Hikaru Nakamura all finished with 8.5 points each at the second spot, while Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa ended fifth on seven points and his compatriot Vidit Gujrathi finished sixth with six points. 

Considering his age and experience, Gukesh's achievement is indeed phenomenal. But those who have been following his career in the last few years, would not be amazed even a bit.

The Chennai-born Dommaraju Gukesh (his mother tongue is Telugu), last year ended the 37-year-long reign of Viswanathan Anand as India No 1, going past his idol and mentor in the September list of FIDE ratings.

Before that, in 2019, at the age of 12 years, seven months, and 17 days, Gukesh became the second youngest chess grandmaster in history, missing the record to be the youngest by just 17 days. (The record was however broken by Indian-origin American Abhimanya Mishra in 2021. Gukesh is now third youngest to win the GM title).

Also, he is the youngest to reach the ELO rating of 2,750. And in 2022, at his home city Chennai, Gukesh uncorked an eight-game winning streak in the Chess Olympiad on board one for India 2, where he jumped into the world top-20 after defeating super-GM Fabiano Caruana with the black pieces. 

Gukesh  won an individual gold on the top board at the Chennai Chess Olympiad (9/11). His performance powered India 2 to a bronze-medal finish at the prestigious event.

Gukesh is also the youngest player to beat Magnus Carlsen at the Aim Chess Rapid tournament (2022), after the Norwegian became World Champion.

With all this, it was only a matter of when Gukesh will get to play the finals of the World Championship. And the trail-blazing triumph at Toronto will mean Gukesh will take on the reigning world champion Ding Liren of China in the finals which will be held in the last three months of the year.

Gukesh Was Allowed To Give Up Academics

The only unlikely factor in Gukesh's climb to global ascendancy in chess is that he comes from a family that is not much into sports. His dad — pause for the name — Dr Rajini Kanth is an ENT specialist while his mother Padma Kumari is a microbiologist.

But the fact that the parents were well educated decidedly helped Gukesh in his early days. Though they didn't push him into the sport, his parents were smart enough to understand and nurture his talent when he showed a spark for the sport in his younger days.

And by the time it became clear that Gukesh was a big champion material, the family took the big gamble — something that many Indian parents wouldn't — they decided he was better off without regular academic grind.

Not just alone that, his father Rajini Kanth put his career on hold and started accompanying the young Gukesh across the globe for his many tournaments while the family made do with the money that the mother brought to the table. Again, it is not an easily done thing in Indian families. 

But the Gukesh family was practical and smart as they ensured that the young man remained focused on his sport, which of course he did with tremendous relish.

Another big advantage for Gukesh is the fact that he is from Tamil Nadu, which has a great culture for chess. The ecosystem to create champions in sports is well established in the state, thanks primarily to many enterprising individuals. India's first-ever IM was TN's Manuel Aaron in 1961.

Much later, the affable man worked passionately and wrote on chess diligently in mainstream publications to make chess popular as a mainstream sport for youngsters (as opposed to it being a cerebral pastime for a few). 

One of beneficiaries of Aaron-inspired chess culture in Tamil Nadu was a certain Viswanathan Anand, whose remarkable exploits now need no retelling. But when he became India's first ever GM in 1988, chess still wasn't fancied much. But his continuous success at the highest level did prove to be a major attraction for others to follow suit.

Anand, The Happy Mentor To A Willing Student  

In 1988, India had just one GM in Anand. By 2023 December, India had 84 GMs, including three women. India's rise has been meteoric in the last two decades, and it now sits fifth in the list of GMs behind Russia, USA, Germany and Ukraine. 

And Tamil Nadu itself is the vanguard of Indian chess upsurge. The state itself has around 26 GMs — the highest in the country.  Since 2020, India has 16 grandmasters, with most of the winners (six) coming from Tamil Nadu.

Aside from the TN factor, there is also the Anand factor. The Indian great, whose peak chess playing days are seemingly behind him now, has now taken to the role of being an avuncular but cerebral mentor for up and coming talents.

Gukesh is among his understudies. Anand's WestBridge Anand Chess Academy’s (WACA) has trained Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and R Vaishali, who were all part of the Candidates tournament.

The academy, which was set into action in 2020, has, apart from Anand, a team of four grandmasters to provide mentorship online to the young champions.

Poland’s Grzegorz Gajewski focuses on opening theories, GM Sandipan Chanda is a past master in mid-game approach, Russian GM Artur Yusupov is an endgame specialist while Boris Gelfand provides general training and strategy sessions.

Anand's academy, in principle, is based on the legendary Botvinnik Chess School in the Soviet Union of the 1960s where legends like Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik sharpened their skills. 

Grzegorz Gajewski was the second to Gukesh at the Candidates tournament. And he was mighty impressed with what he saw.

"Not just the fact that he did so well in terms of the result but also in terms of quality of the games. Already a couple of days earlier, I was convinced that he is going to win the tournament, simply the quality of his moves was so high that he didn't do too many mistakes. He had one accident in his first game against Alireza. Apart from that, there were hardly any mistakes in his games so I think he deserved that," Gajewski was quoted as saying on chessbase site.

And Anand was among the first to congratulate him on X. He tweeted: "Congratulations to @DGukesh for becoming the youngest challenger. The @WacaChess family is so proud of what you have done . I’m personally very proud of how you played and handled tough situations. Enjoy the moment."

Anand apart from giving chess lessons has been motivating the likes of Gukesh with a personal touch. At the 2022 chess Olympiad, when Gukesh kind of blundered from a winning position against Uzbekistan's Nodirbek Abdusattorov, everyone was shellshocked.

He had blown a gold medal winning chance for the team. Many thought that the defeat would unsettle him.  But in the next match against the German Vincent Keymer, Gukesh was back to his usual confident self (he drew a tough game with black pieces).

And after this Gukesh duly credited his mentor. "I had a great talk with Vishy Anand sir after the game. He showed some examples from his games where he made very bad decisions — similar ones where he didn't know when to stop —  the same thing that happened to me against Nodirbek. Just knowing that such a great person has been in a similar situation like me was comforting. After that I just started focusing on the next game."

Gukesh's father once described him as a very focused and determined individual.  Unlike some prodigies, Gukesh reportedly doesn't set specific milestones but simply enjoys the process of playing and improving. 

This focus and intrinsic motivation seem to be key factors in his success. Now that he has won himself a chance to take a crack at the world title, Gukesh would like to emulate his guiding figure. And knowing his intensity and preparation commitment, Gukesh should again fancy his chance to become the youngest world champion.

Should that happen, you should, of course, not be surprised. Gukesh likes to surprise only his opponents, not the fans.