Gukesh Debuts in Google News

For the past few weeks I've been running a series on the early career of Gukesh Dommaraju, aka Gukesh D. The two most recent posts were:-

• Gukesh in 2018 - Age 12 (29 November 2024), and
• Gukesh in 2018 - Scores & Rating (06 December 2024)

That second post ended,

In the first event on the 2018 list, he was rated 2362; in the last event, he was rated 2466. He started the year with a CM title and ended as an IM. In a few more months, he would earn the GM title.

With a bit of luck, I discovered more info about the IM/GM titles. Along with my monthly in-depth look at Google News, last seen in World Championship Yahoos 2024 (November 2024), I receive a daily report of chess news under the title 'Google Alert - Daily Digest'. This week I ran a search for references to Gukesh in my Google Alert archive -- it goes back to 2012 -- and was pleased to find a few news articles covering the GM's early career. The earliest was:-

• 2018-03-13: Gukesh making all the right moves (timesofindia.indiatimes.com) • 'To say that 11-year-old newly-crowned International Master Gukesh breathes chess will be an understatement. Even as children of his age are busy cramming up school syllabus, Gukesh is charting his next move on the chess board. Having taken to the game in 2013, Gukesh is today one of the many prominent players to have emerged out of the city. Gukesh, who became India's latest IM at the conclusion of the 34th Open de Cappelle la Grande chess tournament in France, took to the sport in 2013.'

The first 'Gukesh in 2018' post listed the French tournament with relevant TWIC info:-

TWIC 1218 • 34th Cappelle Open 2018; Sat 3rd Mar 2018; Sat 10th Mar 2018; Cappelle la Grande; FRA; 9 Rounds; Swiss; Time Control: 90m:30m+30spm(1) • 7.0-2.0; 2360

The next two 'Google Alert' mentions of Gukesh were:-

• 2019-01-16: Gukesh Becomes 2nd Youngest Chess Grandmaster In History (chess.com; IM Rakesh) • 'At the age of 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days, Indian prodigy Gukesh Dommaraju became the second youngest grandmaster in chess history. He scored his third grandmaster norm at the 17th Delhi International Chess Grandmaster Open today in New Delhi, India. Despite the recent torrid tournament schedule for Gukesh, the world record of Sergey Karjakin still narrowly stands, this time by just 17 days!', and
  
  
• 2020-04-07: Coronavirus lockdown: Teen chess wizards keep composure; stay busy with online events (deccanherald.com) • 'Young they might be but restless? Certainly not. R Praggnanandhaa, D Gukesh and P Iniyan -- the teen brigade of Indian chess is unfazed about being confined to home due to the national lockdown to contain the spread of coronavirus [...]'

Then follows a pause of more than two years, undoubtedly due to the various covid-19 lockdowns in effect all over the world.

• 2022-08-05: India's teen talent shines as Chennai Olympiad breaks records (theguardian.com; Leonard Barden) • 'The standout first half Olympiad team has been India 2, with its average age of 19 and its already iconic top board Gukesh D (as he is now invariably called rather than Dommaraju Gukesh). The 16-year-old son of a surgeon and a microbiologist has come a long way from when, at 11, he incurred Nigel Short's displeasure.' [NB: for letting Short's clock run when the GM failed to punch it]

The Barden article continued,

Gukesh has been in stellar form in 2022, winning five first prizes in succession in Spain. His rating has shot past the elite 2700 mark, a feat achieved at a younger age by only Wei Yi, Magnus Carlsen and Alireza Firouzja. He has won all his seven games so far in Chennai, including his impressive win over Alexey Shirov where he encouraged the former world title challenger to launch one of his Fire on Board attacks so as to refute it by superior strategic and endgame play.

Gukesh is making a vast impression in Chennai, one that can be compared with five of the great Olympiad debuts by future world class players: Paul Keres at Warsaw 1935, Bent Larsen at Moscow 1956, Mikhail Tal at Munich 1958, Judit Polgar at Thessaloniki 1988, and Vlad Kramnik at Manila 1992.'

At every milestone in his meteoric career, Gukesh compared favorably to the greatest of the chess greats. It's little wonder that he became the youngest World Champion of all time.