Globetrotting Gukesh

While preparing a previous post, Gukesh in 2018 - Age 12 (November 2024), in this short series on Gukesh Dommaraju, I spotted a problem with the raw data:-

[Earlier] I listed a half-dozen tournaments played through the end of 2017. Here's the continuation of that list [with 17 events]. There's at least one important tournament missing from that list. I'll cover it in my next post in the series.

One of the most striking aspects of the 2018 list is that only six of the 17 events were played in India. Most of the others were played in Europe. Anyone who travels farther than the local supermarket knows that travel can be expensive. How did young Gukesh manage to travel so much?

With that question in the back of my mind, I found the following article by Johannes Fischer published shortly after the two 2024 Candidates Tournaments: Dommaraju Gukesh and Tan Zhongyi celebrate their birthdays (chessbase.com; May 2024). It said,

Gukesh's father was a surgeon and his mother a microbiologist. Gukesh took up chess at the age of 5 and quickly achieved success, whereupon his parents did all they could to support their son's career. His father even gave up his job as a surgeon to accompany Gukesh to tournaments. The parents also take their son out of school to give him more time to concentrate on chess.

The hard work and dedication paid off. In 2018, Gukesh became U12 World Champion and just one year later, in 2019, at the age of 12 years, seven months and 17 days, he secured the title of Grandmaster. At the time, he was the second youngest grandmaster of all time behind Sergey Karjakin and is regarded as one of the world's greatest talents.

Gukesh as 'U12 World Champion' is confirmed by World Cadet Chess Championships 2018 finished in Spain (old.fide.com). There we learn,

The World Cadet Chess Championships 2018 were held in Santiago de Compostela, Galicia, Spain, from 3rd of November to 15th of November 2018. The Championships were held for the age groups U08, U10 and U12, Girls and Open. A record number of 851 participants from 86 federations took part in the Championships. [...] 'U12 Open: 1. Gukesh D IND 10.0'

TWIC reported on the 'World Youth Championship' (TWIC1252: U18, U16, U14)...

The World Youth Championship took place in Porto Carras 20th to 30th October 2018.

...but not on the later 'World Cadet Championship' (U12, U10, U08). [NB: While I was preparing this post, the Wikipedia page World Youth Chess Championship (wikipedia.org), was vandalized to replace Gukesh's name by another name for both 2018 and 2020.]

Fast forward to the current year. After the Candidates tournament, where Gukesh earned the right to play for the World Championship as challenger, another Chessbase article, The dream becomes a reality: Gukesh’s victory in a historic event (chessbase.com; April 2024), posited,

The importance of a strong support system • To be successful in anything, one needs to have a great support system. D Gukesh was surrounded by his father Dr. Rajini Kanth, his second Grzegorz Gajewski, and Westbridge Capital sponsor Sandeep Singhal. [plus photo of all four]

Note the spelling 'Rajini Kanth', in two words. I've seen the same in one word, 'Rajinikanth' [-jini-], as well as 'Rajnikanth' [-jni-]. The single word 'Rajinikanth' appears to be the preferred spelling.

2024 FIDE World Championship - Singapore

'Gukesh and parents' (the day after the closing ceremony)
Photo: FIDE / Maria Emelianova

Fans of Magnus Carlsen will remember the role his father Henrik played when the young future World Champion was climbing to the top. While there is no guarantee that parental support will ensure future success, lack of that support might well hinder it.