THE YOUNG GRANDMASTERS

GUKESH DOMMARAJU IS NOW THE YOUNGEST EVER WORLD CHAMPION, BUT THAT IS JUST ICING ON THE CAKE IN INDIA'S CHESS STORY. FOR THE 'GOLDEN GENERATION', 2024 WAS THE YEAR THEY DID IT ALL

- SUHANI SINGH

Gukesh Dommaraju doesn't have many childhood memories but there is one that's clearly etched in his mind. As a seven-year-old rookie chess player, standing with his father far back in a packed room at Chennai's Hyatt Regency hotel to watch Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen duel it out for the world championship title. The kid couldn't see the black-andwhite squares but the sight of the two greats "was inspiring" enough that he envisioned a dream then and there. "I thought it'd be cool to be inside that glass box one day," he says. Four years later, in a now viral clip he'd articulate the desire better: "I want to become the youngest world chess champion." On December 12, 2024, Gukesh, all of 18, fulfilled the wish by winning a thrilling contest against Ding Liren that lasted 56 hours, spread across 14 days. In doing so, the teenager not only broke legend Garry Kasparov's record to become chess's youngest world champion ever, but also became only the second Indian to win the title (after Anand's heroics in the noughties).

But Gukesh's splendid run in 2024-winning the Candidates face-off to become the challenger, a team and individual gold at the Chess Olympiad, then the world title-is a story within a story. The larger one is that India is today a bonafide chess powerhouse, a fecund ground for grandmasters (GMs) who are captivating the world. It's a whole Gen Z army out there. Take Arjun Erigaisi (21) who, earlier this month, entered the elite 2800 Elo ratings club, only the 16th player in history to do so. Besides these two, R. Praggnanandhaa (19) and Vidit Gujrathi (30), their partners from the gold medal-winning Olympiad 2024 team, are among the five Indians in the FIDE (Fédération Internationale des Échecs) top 20 rankings. Meanwhile, at the Global Chess League in October, 20-year-old Nihal Sarin was adjudged the season's most valuable player after guiding his team, PBG Alaskan Knights, into the finals.