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Gukesh Dommaraju, or D Gukesh as he is known, is creating a buzz in the chess world as he has taken on China’s Ding Liren at the World Chess Championship in Singapore.

The 18-year-old Indian grandmaster logged his first win against reigning world champion Liren in round 3 of the 14-match series. It took Gukesh only 37 moves to beat Liren.

Gukesh, who lost the first round, is the youngest challenger for the world championship title at 18.

Born in Chennai and hailing from a Telugu family from Andhra Pradesh, Gukesh began playing chess in 2013. While his father is an ENT surgeon, his mother is a microbiologist.

Gukesh’s talent was spotted by his coach, Bhaskar V, and helped him take the game professionally. Gukesh dropped out of school after Class 4.

By 2015, he had won the Under-9 section of the Asian School Chess Championship. He went on to win the World Youth Chess Championships in 2018 in the Under 12 category.

He set the record as India’s youngest Grand Master when he became a grandmaster at the age of 12 years, seven months, and 17 days in 2019. To get there, he played about 230 games a year.

He was mentored by Viswanathan Anand as well as Poland’s Grzegorz Gajewski. He also got training under the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy.

In September 2023, Gukesh Dommaraju became India’s top-ranked player in the FIDE rankings in 2023. The youngster surpassed Vishwanathan Anand, which is a feat that an Indian achieved for the first time in the last 36 years.

If Gukesh wins the FIDE World Chess Championship 2024 title in Singapore, he will be bringing back the chess crown home after 2012. Vishwanathan Anand is the only one who won the title in 2012.