He is 12.


He is Grandmaster!!


That's Gukesh D from India and he was here in Malaysia for the 2017 Selangor Open. The fact that he fell short on Sergei Karjakin record of being the youngest GM in the world losing by only 12 days is irrelevant. This achievement is still amazing !!

A lot has been written (and being written) on this so I won't repeat and just leave links to articles about Gukesh.

Interesting to add that this young talent has been in Malaysia before in 2015 winning prizes in the Junior events of the Malaysian Chess Festival. He was 8 years old then!



I wish I had interviewed him when he was here in 2017 but at least I got to talk to his father and wrote a short opinion piece based on it. Bacl then I observed he cried losing to a GM and that only showed how invested he was in the game. 2 years later he is now GM! There is sort of a strange coincidence as I've seen Yeoh Li Tian cry after losing a game when he was  9 or 10 and he now has 2 GM norms!
(so if you have a kid who cries after losing a game - I think that's a good sign :) )

 
I am glad I got in 2 selfies with the rising superstar when he was here.

Incidentally Gukesh got his first IM norm in Malaysia at the ICE First Friday tournament.

Related articles:

• India’s D Gukesh becomes the world’s second youngest Grandmaster (India Express)
• Gukesh becomes India's youngest ever Grandmaster (TImes of India)
• How boy wonder D Gukesh became India's youngest Grandmaster (ESPN)