D. Gukesh, The Second Youngest Grandmaster Ever

D. Gukesh, the second youngest grandmaster ever, and his Indian peers are making the world take note.

- Neeru Bhatia

Six months and 21 days. That is all it took for the record of India’s youngest grandmaster to be broken again. At 12 years, 7 months and 17 days, D. Gukesh became India’s youngest and the world’s second youngest grandmaster of all time, when he defeated Dinesh Sharma in the ninth round of the Delhi International Open Grandmasters chess tournament on January 15. He bettered the feat achieved by his city and school mate R. Praggnanandhaa in June 2018. Gukesh missed becoming the youngest GM ever by just 17 days—the record was set by Ukraine’s Sergey Karjakin in 2002. Gukesh is the third Indian, after Parimarjan Negi (2006) and Praggnanandhaa, to occupy the second spot.

The advent of prodigies like Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh and the 14-year-old Nihal Sarin has made the future of Indian chess look brighter than ever. Sarin became a GM in August 2018. Bharat Singh Chauhan, secretary of All India Chess Federation and president of Delhi Chess Association, let out a hearty laugh when asked whether the young harvest of chess talent in India is a coincidence. “Nothing happens in chess by chance,” he said. “This is a result of opportunities we are providing in India. We have a structure in place. We are giving more chances to juniors.... The focus is on hosting 250-300 FIDE rating competitions in a year. We are among top three in the world in terms of organising such events, plus we have eight International FIDE events. The growth among the juniors is phenomenal—the Delhi event had 75 per cent juniors participating.”