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Dommaraju Gukesh (Tamil: குகேஷ்; born 29 May 2006), commonly known as Gukesh D, is an Indian chess player. He is the second youngest person in history to qualify for the title of Grandmaster, which FIDE awarded him in March 2019.
Early life
Gukesh was born on 29 May 2006 in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. His father, Rajnikanth, is an ear, nose and throat surgeon; and his mother, Padma, is a microbiologist. He learnt chess at the age of seven. He studies in Velammal Vidyalaya, Mel Ayanambakkam, Chennai.
Chess career
He won the Under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championships in 2015 and the World Youth Chess Championships in 2018 in the Under 12 category. Gukesh also won five gold medals at the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championships, in the U-12 individual rapid and blitz, U-12 team rapid and blitz, and the U-12 individual classical formats. He completed the requirements for the title of International Master in March 2018 at the conclusion of the 34th Cappelle-la-Grande Open in France.
Gukesh was on the verge of surpassing Sergey Karjakin to become the youngest chess grandmaster in history, but he missed the record by less than a month. He became the second youngest grandmaster in history on January 15, 2019, at the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days. As of 2019 he is the youngest grandmaster in the world and India's youngest grandmaster.
