He had a dream: Watching a title slip away lit a spark

BENGALURU: There's a now viral video of an 11-year-old Gukesh saying that he wants to become the youngest world champion. A short seven years later, Gukesh is living the dream.

- Susan Ninan

On Thursday, Gukesh became the youngest-ever world chess champion at 18. He sobbed and spoke of doing a bungee jump.

The momentous achievement completed a stunning arc that began over a decade ago, a dream that was reared through sacrifice and an obsessive, single-minded focus.

His father, Rajini Kanth, has placed his career as a doctor on the backburner to prioritize Gukesh's dreams. His mother Padma, a microbiologist, has been the primary bread-winner.

One of Gukesh's first calls after his win on Thursday was to her. "We didn't really say anything...we were both crying," Gukesh said.

There was a time when Gukesh was chasing the goal of becoming the youngest-ever GM between 2017 and 2018, bouncing from tournament to tournament across the world, sleeping in airport lounges.

But as the costs spiralled, and the journey appeared untenable, Rajini Kanth's former collegemates crowdfunded money so Gukesh wouldn't have to let up on his dream. "Even now I feel bad that right after Gukesh became the world's second youngest GM, I had to ask him to sleep at the Madrid airport on our way to a Gibraltar tournament," said Rajini Kanth. "He's never complained."

"The professions we chose may be different, but the basic principle is what has been passed down from our parents," Rajini Kanth told HT.

"My wife and I are from middle-class families and growing up, we were told by our parents that you have to study hard, there is no other choice. The general trend then was to either become a doctor or engineer. That's how we both ended up in our respective professions," he said.