Who Is Gukesh D? The Grandmaster Who Overtook Vishy Anand As India's Top-Ranked Chess Player

Teenager Grandmaster Gukesh D (Dommaraju Gukesh) rose to an all-new high with a win over home favourite Misratdin Iskandarov in a second-round match of the World Cup on Tuesday, and suddenly the entire India was talking about him. With his victory, Gukesh overtook his idol Viswanathan Anand in the live world (FIDE) rankings. The 17-year-old Gukesh outclassed Iskandarov of Azerbaijan in 44 moves in the second game of their second-round match.

"Gukesh D won again today and has overcome Viswanathan Anand in live rating! There is still almost a month till next official FIDE rating list on September 1, but it's highly likely that 17-year-old will be making it to top 10 in the world as the highest-rated Indian player," the international chess federation (FIDE) said in a tweet.

Gukesh was just 7 years old when he learned to play chess. Hailing from Chennai, the same city as GM Viswanathan Anand, Gukesh was introduced to chess by his school, which is part of the Velammal group of schools across Chennai. Gukesh's first coach at the school, Mr. Bhaskar, quickly realised the boy's potential and helped him become a FIDE-rated player just 6 months after learning the game.

Vijayanand then took up as Gukesh's coach and the boy started to find success at the international level. At the 2015 Asian School Chess Championships, he emerged triumphant at the under-9 section while also earning the candidate master's (CM) title. His first major win came in 2018. Gukesh won 5 medals at the Asian Youth Chess Championships. The same year, he made the under-12 title his own at the World Youth Championships with 10/11 points.

Gukesh became an international master at 11 years, nine months, and nine days old. He then started working on his quest to