Indian teenager Dommaraju Gukesh has become the youngest player ever to defeat Magnus Carlsen since the Norwegian became world champion nearly a decade ago. He defeated the world champion in the preliminary phase of Aimchess Rapid online chess.
Gukesh beat the world No. 1 with white pieces early on Monday to move up to the third position behind Poland’s Jan-Krzystof Duda (25 points) and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Azerbaijan, 23 points) with 21 points after the 12th round.
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Aged 16 years, four months and 20 days old, Gukesh broke the previous record held by Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa who beat the world champion in February when he was 16 years, six months and 10 days old.
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Who is D Gukesh?
Dommaraju Gukesh is an Indian chess grandmaster. He was born on May 29, 2006, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His father’s name is Rajnikanth and he is an ENT surgeon. His mother’s name is Padma and she is a microbiologist. He started learning chess at the age of seven. He studies in Velammal Vidyalaya, Mel Ayanambakkam, Chennai.
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In August 2022, Gukesh won the 44th Chess Olympiad which was his 8th consecutive win. He won the Under-9 division of the Asian School Chess Championships in 2015 and the Under-12 division of the World Youth Chess Championships in 2018.
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In the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championships, he bagged five gold medals in the U-12 solo fast and blitz, U-12 team rapid and blitz, and U-12 individual classical formats. He finished all the prerequisites for the title of International Master at the 34th Cappelle-la-Grande Open in March 2018.
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Gukesh came within 17 days of beating Sergey Karjakin’s record for being the youngest grandmaster ever. At the age of 12 years, seven months, and 17 days on January 15, 2019, he became the second-youngest grandmaster in the history of chess. As of 2022, he is the youngest grandmaster in India.
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He scored 14 out of 19 points to win the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour’s Gelfand Challenge in June 2021.
The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE awarded him the Grandmaster title in March 2019.