Gukesh Dommaraju is an Indian chess grandmaster and the reigning World Chess Champion. A chess prodigy, Gukesh is the youngest undisputed World Champion; the youngest player to have surpassed a FIDE rating of 2750, doing so at the age of 17; and the third-youngest to have surpassed 2700 Elo at age 16. He earned the title of grandmaster at age 12 and is the fourth-youngest grandmaster in chess history.
Gukesh started playing chess at age 7. He won the under-12 title at the World Youth Chess Championship in 2018, and multiple gold medals at the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championship. He became an International Master in March 2017, becoming a GM on 15 January 2019, at the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days, making him the second-youngest grandmaster in the history of the game, after Sergey Karjakin. He was part of the Indian team that won the silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games in the men’s team competition.
Gukesh won the team bronze and the individual gold medal at the 44th Chess Olympiad in 2022. In the September 2023 rating list, Gukesh became the top-rated Indian player, ending Viswanathan Anand’s 37-year record. In the 45th Chess Olympiad in 2024, he won both team and individual gold medals. In 2024, he became the youngest winner of the Candidates Tournament and successfully challenged Ding Liren in the World Chess Championship, becoming the 18th and youngest undisputed world champion in history, at 18 years and 195 days.
Career
2015–2021: Beginnings
Gukesh won the under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships in 2015. He won the World Youth Chess Championship in 2018 in the under-12 category. In the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championship, he won a record five gold medals in the under-12 events in individual rapid, blitz and classical formats, and the team rapid and blitz competitions. He completed the requirements for the title of International Master in March 2017 at the 34th Cappelle-la-Grande Open.
On 15 January 2019, Gukesh became the then second-youngest grandmaster in the history of the game at the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days, behind Sergey Karjakin. In June 2021, he won the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour, Gelfand Challenge, scoring 14 out of 19 points.
2022–2023: Olympiad gold and Candidates qualification
In August 2022, Gukesh won the individual gold medal on the first board in the open event at the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai with a score of 9 out of 11. He was part of the India-2 team which won the bronze medal in the same tournament. In September 2022, he was part of the Indian team that won the silver medal at the 2022 Asian Games in the men’s team competition. In the same month, Gukesh reached a FIDE rating of over 2700 for the first time with a rating of 2726, and became the third-youngest to do so after Wei Yi and Alireza Firouzja. During the Aimchess Rapid tournament in October 2022, Gukesh became the youngest to beat Magnus Carlsen, the reigning World Chess Champion at that time.
In August 2023, Gukesh became the youngest player ever to reach a rating of 2750, breaking Carlsen’s record. In the Chess World Cup 2023 at Baku, he advanced to the quarterfinals, where he lost to Carlsen. In the September 2023 rating list, Gukesh surpassed Viswanathan Anand as the top-ranked Indian player, marking the first time in 37 years that Anand was not the top-ranked Indian player.
In December 2023, Gukesh qualified for the 2024 Candidates Tournament, to be conducted to identify the challenger to Ding Liren for the World Chess Championship. He finished 2nd in the FIDE Circuit behind Fabiano Caruana, and took the qualifying spot reserved for the winner, as Caruana had already qualified through the Chess World Cup. He was the third-youngest player to qualify for a Candidates tournament, behind Bobby Fischer and Carlsen.
2024: Olympiad double gold and World Championship
In January, Gukesh finished in a four-way tie for the first place in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024 with a score of 8½ in 13 rounds. He defeated Anish Giri in the semifinals before losing to Wei Yi in the finals of the tiebreaker. In April, Gukesh was part of the eight-player Candidates Tournament held in Toronto. He won five games against R Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi playing as Black, Firouzja playing as White, and Nijat Abasov playing as both Black and White. With a single loss coming against Firouzja, he finished with nine points from 14 rounds to win the tournament. He was the youngest-ever winner of the Candidates tournament. In September, Gukesh took part in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest as part of the Indian team. He did not lose a single match and won the individual gold medal with a score of nine across ten rounds. His performance on board one helped India to win their first-ever team gold medal at the Olympiad. As a result of the win, Gukesh entered the top-five in the FIDE rankings for the first time on 1 October 2024.
The 2024 World Chess Championship was held in November–December 2024 between Gukesh and Ding Liren. Gukesh scored three wins against two wins for Ding, and nine draws in the 14 classical rounds of the match. He won the 14th and final game on 12 December 2024, and as a result, the World Chess Championship by a scoreline of 7½–6½. The win made him the youngest undisputed World Chess Champion, breaking the record previously held by Garry Kasparov. FIDE commented on Gukesh’s gameplay as having “near-perfect accuracy”, and Ding reacted that it was his best tournament of the year, and that he had no regrets in losing the title to Gukesh. Gukesh’s team included grandmasters Grzegorz Gajewski, Radosław Wojtaszek, Jan-Krzysztof Duda, Jan Klimkowski, Pentala Harikrishna, and Vincent Keymer, along with his mental coach Paddy Upton.
2025
On 17 January, Gukesh received the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award from President Droupadi Murmu at the Rashtrapati Bhavan for his World Championship accomplishment. He was 18 years, 7 months, and 20 days old when he received the award. This made him the youngest ever recipient of the award, breaking the record previously held by Abhinav Bindra.
In January, Gukesh tied for first with R Praggnanandhaa in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025 with a score of 8½ in 13 rounds. He lost 2–1 in the blitz tiebreaker.
Gukesh participated in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour, a series of Chess960 tournaments. In February, he finished in eighth place in the first leg in Weissenhaus. In April, he finished eleventh in the second leg in Paris.
In May, Gukesh participated in the second leg of the Grand Chess Tour 2025 in Romania, where he finished in a four way tie for sixth.
In May-June, Gukesh participated in Norway Chess 2025, in his first Classical Tournament with Magnus Carlsen since becoming World Champion, Gukesh lost his round 1 game to Carlsen, and his round 2 game to Arjun Erigaisi. In round 3, he scored a crucial win against Hikaru Nakamura, his first, which was Nakamura’s only loss in the tournament, In round 6, Gukesh played Carlsen with the white pieces. He was in a lost position but played a series of accurate moves to equate. Carlsen blundered in an equal position to lose in a dramatic fashion. This was Gukesh’s first win against Carlsen and Carlsen’s only loss in the tournament, In round 7 he beat Erigaisi, which was Gukesh’s first win against the longtime rival, Going into last round, he was still in first place contention but lost his game against Fabiano Caruana by blundering a knight fork in an equal position, Gukesh finished the tournament in third place behind Carlsen and Caruana.
In July, Gukesh participated in the Super United Rapid and Blitz Croatia, In the Rapid section, after losing his 1st Round game to Duda, he won his next five games against Alireza, Pragg, Abdusattorov, Caruana and Carlsen, drew the next 2 games, and won in the last round against Wesley So to finish on 14/18 points, 3 points ahead of second place, Duda, In the Blitz section he only scored 5.5/18 points. His total score of 19.5/38 got him 3rd place, behind Carlsen and So.
In the Grand Swiss tournament 2025, he finished in 41st place, winning four games against Etienne Bacrot, Daniil Yuffa, Gabriel Sargissian and Andrei Volokitin, losing to Abhimanyu Mishra, Nikolas Theodorou, and Ediz Gurel, and drawing with Arjun Erigaisi, Yagiz Kaan Erdogmus, Robert Hovhannisyan and Divya Deshmukh.
In October, he helped the Superchess team win gold at 41st European Chess Club Cup, winning individual board 1 gold himself., This marked his first win since becoming world champion.
Later the same month, he finished last in the inaugural Clutch Chess: Champions Showdown among a field of 4 players.
As the reigning World Chess Champion, Gukesh played in the Chess World Cup in November 2025 as the first seed. There, he was eliminated by Frederik Svane in the third round.
In late December, Gukesh participated in both the 2025 FIDE World Rapid Championship and 2025 FIDE World Blitz Championship. He finished in 20th place during the FIDE World Rapid Championship with a score of 8.5/13. During the Open Swiss portion of the FIDE World Blitz Championship, Gukesh finished in 53rd with a score of 11/19, and did not qualify for the finals.
2026
Beginning in January and ending in February, Gukesh participated in the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2026. He finished in a three way tie for 8th place with a score of 6.5/13, but officially came in 10th after Sonneborn-Berger tiebreaks.
In March, Gukesh participated in the Masters portion of the 2026 Prague International Chess Festival. Gukesh finished in 9th place out of 10 with a score of 3.5/10(+1-3=5), avoiding last place on tiebreaks.
Gukesh withdrew from Grand Chess Tour 2026, citing recent poor performances and his upcoming World Championship match, opting to only play in GCT’s Rapid & Blitz Events, Gukesh finished 6th place at Super Rapid & Blitz Poland, he defeated his World Championship Challenger Javokhir Sindarov in Rapid but lost both their Blitz games.
Gukesh finished last of 6 players at Norway Chess 2026, losing 5 classical games including twice to World no.1 Magnus Carlsen and winning only one to eventual winner R Praggnanandhaa.
