D Gukesh: The boy out to win the world

Fearless, resourceful and wildly ambitious, Gukesh at 18 is the challenger chess needs

- Susan Ninan

BENGALURU: There was a three-way tie for first place at the WR Masters in February 2023. The organisers suggested a shared first place if the co-leaders were on board with the idea. The then world No. 2 Ian Nepomniachtchi and two-time World Cup winner Levon Aronian found the idea reasonable - they preferred a shared first place to tiebreaks. The third co-leader shot it down and insisted that tiebreaks be played.

That player was D Gukesh - then just 16, and lower rated than both players. "I thought, 'wow, this guy is a special character'," Aronian tells HT. "He's so young but doesn't care if somebody is stronger or more experienced than him. He just wants to shoot for the stars." Aronian went on to win the tournament in the rapid tie- WC breaks.

A little over a year later, Gukesh became the youngest ever Candidates winner. He will C'S take on defending champion Ding Liren at the World Championship in Singapore four days from now.

As a young boy, Gukesh spent many nights curled up in the back of the car while his father, Rajini Kanth, drove him to weekend chess tournaments. Chess happened because it seemed like a good way to kill time till his father-an ENT surgeon-got out of work and picked him up from school. His mother, Padma, is a microbiologist.

"Enrolling him in a chess class in the after-school hours seemed like a more productive idea than him waiting for me in the school corridor. We never imagined things he's doing today were even possible", says Rajini Kanth, who continues to travel with Gukesh for tournaments.