CBIJ #02: Top ten things you didn't know about Gukesh!
Here's the second edition of CBIJ (ChessBase India Juniors!). CBIJ covers all the kids in India born on or after 1st January 2005. A lot of things happened in the last 15 days. The focus of this issue is India's latest International Master - 12-year-old D. Gukesh! Thanks to regular reports by ChessBase India we all know Gukesh the chess player quite well, but what about Gukesh the 12-year-old! We let you know more about him here. Also we have the interview with the Prince of the North-East Shahil Dey. And yes, try your hand at the trivia. Last month no one was able to get the answer! We hope this month you will fare better! Enjoy the second edition of CBIJ by Avathanshu Bhat.
Budding Talents
What a month this has been! Gukesh making his IM title, Divya making her second IM norm and Rakshitta making her maiden IM norm! There used to be a time when getting a rating was difficult. It still is. But kids these days are surging ahead and gaining Elo and making norms, titles in no time. One really wonders, how do they do it?
The chess world is no longer a world for players of long years of experience. We have seen kids who have just played chess for a few years, yet are as strong as anybody around them. I feel that rating isn’t a yardstick to judge the level of the players - the quality of play matters as well - but getting Elo as high as 2000 is not child’s play. Every player has their own story to tell. Some of them almost chose another sport (swimming or cricket) but by a turn of fate, they all started playing chess seriously and are now well known worldwide. Such players start chess at a very early age and will give up everything else to toil at the game. The rate at which they get such giant achievement is truly worthy of admiration. Their will to keep working and achieve their goals is unrivaled with anything else I have seen.
We see these talents slowly emerging into the main pages of newspapers, sports magazines and online articles. Take for example Gukesh. With his recent IM title, he is making speedy progress in the chess world. But there are lot of things we don’t know about Gukesh the 12-year-old boy.
Top ten things you didn't know about Gukesh!
10. Gukesh’s ‘Heaven on Earth’ is Malaysia
He has played many tournaments in India and abroad. His favourite place so far is Malaysia. Gukesh went there to play the DATMO (Dato Arthur Tan Malaysian Open) in January where he increased his rating by 37 points! He also got his first IM norm at the First Friday tournament in the same city! A great tournament plus a great location always equals a memorable experience!
9. He misses this food the most when abroad…
…Pani Puri! It can sometimes be painful to be in such beautiful places with a major drawback: no chaat stands in sight. Especially for Indians, it is almost a blessing (not in a disguise) to have absolutely anything from home.
8. Sportive Gukesh!
Devoting his full time to chess never really allowed many prizes in any other sports. However, this young boy has two other casual hobbies, Cricket and Badminton. What’s more is that…
7. …all the talent in him is unique!
When asked, Gukesh replied that not many other people in his family play any sports. His dad, Rajni Kanth, does have an International rating in Chess, but that was only after Gukesh showed his potential first in the game of Kings and Queens. We can only conclude that one rogue gene caused it all!
6. Contingency plans? Gukesh has one ready!
What if the young lad hadn’t had the splendid potential for chess? What if that interest never sparked years ago? Well, Gukesh has something he can fall back onto! With the same devotion to chess, by this time Gukesh may have been a world class Cricketer!
5. Bored no longer!
Boredom is possibly the worst thing to have on a day like the weekends. Well the solution is Youtube - the memes, vines, 'Try not to laugh' compilations, challenges etc. are what Gukesh watches to brighten up. Oh, and he says he watches ChessBase India Interviews ardently as well!
4. Entertainment- a vital routine!
Everyone loves a good movie, whatever the genre maybe. For us youngsters, Action, Sci-fi, Adventure, Fantasy are the world in film tastes. Gukesh loves India’s most ‘box office shaking’ action film, Baahubali 2. I mean, who didn’t love that last scene?
3. Reading tastes…
We kids love a good comic. The comics in the newspaper, Garfield® or Tinkle is always a treat! Gukesh however prefers the last of those, Tinkle.
2. Best buds!
Being a very serious player, where is there time to party? Gukesh though, has many friends to keep in touch with. But that one best dude, currently, is another Goan talent, Leon Luke Mendonca. Keep an eye out for this little guy! He will soon feature in one of our editions!
1. That one game…
…where he feels he played best was against Praneeth Vuppala in U-11 Nationals in Pune. A fantastic game, with great spirit, Gukesh took the full point with grace. It seems like Lasker was alive on the board, when Gukesh went for his famed double bishop sacrifice. The game can be viewed below.
Gukesh's team:
Three people who have worked very hard for Gukesh's success are his parents Rajinikanth and Padma Kumari, and his first coach Vijay Anand. ChessBase India got in touch with three of them to give you insights into this amazing talent's life.
Junior interview: Little prince of the north east - Shahil Dey
North-East India hasn't seen a titled player in chess yet. CM Shahil Dey is their best bet. A swimming champion turned chess player at the age of five, he is now an 1896 rated with the title of CM and was felicitated with the National Child Award from the President of India. Watch the following interview about his chess, swimming and personal life!
Answer to ChessBase India Juniors' trivia 01:
We received many comments in the last article and also 21 comments on Facebook but no one was able to guess the right answer.
ChessBase India Juniors' Trivia 02:
There will be one winner selected via lucky draw from all the correct answers. The winner will receive Rs.250 gift voucher from ChessBase India.
Carlsen vs Caruana!
Were you all following the Candidates 2018? Fabiano Caruana truly deserved that victory. The world will have to wait till November to see the clash of the two titans and find out who will reign as world champion! Both started very young and dreamed big, like you and me. Think big, dream big! What is your thought on the on these two champions. Do you think Caruana can dethrone Carlsen? Let us know in the comments section below!
Top 5 born in 2005:
| 25059530 | Praggnanandhaa R | IM | IND | 2507 | 1736 | 2207 | 2005 | M | |||
| 35093487 | Sadhwani, Raunak | FM | IND | 2369 | 2308 | 2151 | 2005 | M | |||
| 35006916 | Divya Deshmukh | WFM | WFM | IND | 2138 | 1544 | 1800 | 2005 | F | ||
| 45048975 | Aaryan Varshney | IND | 2108 | 1576 | 2005 | M | |||||
| 25073230 | Rakshitta Ravi | IND | 2107 | 1507 | 1451 | 2005 | F |
Top 5 born in 2006:
| 46616543 | Gukesh D | CM | IND | 2360 | 1286 | 1715 | 2006 | M | |||
| 25060783 | Pranav, V | IND | 2333 | 1874 | 1955 | 2006 | M | ||||
| 35042025 | Aditya Mittal | CM | IND | 2206 | 1488 | 1655 | 2006 | M | |||
| 46608850 | Shome Shiv | IND | 2148 | 1627 | 1558 | 2006 | M | ||||
| 35080580 | Samant Aditya S | IND | 2107 | 1464 | 1637 | 2006 | M |
Top 5 born in 2007:
| Name | Classical | Rapid | Blitz |
| Mullick,Raahil | 2053 | ||
| Bharath Subramaniyam H | 1997 | 2193 | 1899 |
| Dev, Shah | 1997 | 1500 | 1730 |
| Prraneeth Vuppala | 1943 | 1628 | 1424 |
| Shahil Dey | 1896 | 1735 | 1767 |
Top 5 born in 2008:
| Name | Classical | Rapid | Blitz |
| Kadam Om Manish | 1788 | 1282 | |
| Shaik Sumer Arsh | 1561 | ||
| Arhan Chethan Anand | 1526 | 1338 | 1504 |
| Vedant Nitin vekhande | 1512 | 1229 | |
| Sahib Singh | 1484 |
Contact us:
Did you like the second edition of ChessBase India Juniors? If you want to see any content of yours on the page, or win a special prize by guessing, start pouring your opinions in the comments section below! You can also email us at chessbaseindiajuniors@gmail.com.
About the author:
Avathanshu Bhat has been writing about chess for well over a year now. He has published innumerable articles for ChessBase India and his articles have been well received by the audience. He is the editor-in-chief of ChessBase India Juniors. His main intention is to bring the best junior players of our country into the limelight with his writings. Here is some of the work he has done in the past:
G. Akash wins the Grand Hyderabad affair
10-year-old boy's deep calculation (50,000+ hits on Youtube)
12-year-old chessentrepreneur Avathanshu Bhat
Hemant Sharma becomes International Master
Champion from Chudamani - IM Sidhant Mohapatra
Blindfold simul by Timur Gareyev