At the tender age of seven, D Gukesh had a dream: to become the world chess champion. Little did his parents, Rajinikanth and Padma Kumari, know that their son would realize that dream in just 11 years. It marked a personal milestone for Gukesh as much as it did a historic moment in Indian chess history when he overcame the defending champion of China, Ding Liren, in a 14-game marathon to win the 2024 World Chess Championship. He was only 18 when he joined the list of the world’s best and only the second Indian after Vishwanathan Anand to wear the coveted crown.
The last hours of the championship were an outburst of emotion. It was when Gukesh got the tie-breaking point dramatically, winning his last match in the match, which the father still couldn’t believe the way he watched his face contorted; and also tears in the eyes of Gukesh that narrate the saga of their journey through. Within a couple of minutes from there, he hugged him tightly, yet with no sound in what reflected the trials and tribulations in the achievement of the ultimate milestone.
Gukesh reflected on the win: “I have been dreaming about this moment since I started my chess journey at about 7. but the dream was probably bigger for them than it was for me.” His victory with a score of 7.5 points to Ding’s 6.5 was years of hard work, sacrifice, and determination.
This path to victory was not smooth. With Gukesh’s emergence, the success came for a heavy cost that both he, and his parents have borne. In crucial years of development, during which chess took Gukesh fully to himself, his dad Rajinikanth bid adieu to the successful medical career of being an ENT surgeon to focus entirely on the son who was going great. During this very time, Padma Kumari, a microbiologist by profession, became a breadwinner alone in this family.
The financial struggles were significant. “We were not a very well-off family, so they had to face a lot of financial struggles,” Gukesh said. There were times when the family struggled to make ends meet, with Gukesh’s chess tournaments funded by friends and well-wishers. The couple made enormous lifestyle changes, sacrificing much to ensure that Gukesh could pursue his dreams without financial constraints.
Gukesh started his chess journey in 2013 with humble lessons. At that time, Viswanathan Anand had just lost his world title to Magnus Carlsen, and the chess world was dominated by new ideas and global talent. But Gukesh’s parents, despite their own struggles, believed in him, fueling his path from a young dreamer to a world champion.
It was his journey about the power of belief, sacrifice, and a family’s never-give-up spirit putting everything on the line for a single dream.