The youngest contender has begun the battle for the chess crown.

What does Gukesh Dommaraju, the compatriot of five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand, represent?! The dark-eyed prodigy was born into a family of an otolaryngologist and a microbiologist. He picked up chess pieces relatively late, at the age of 7. And that was only because it was an elective course at school: "I was simply curious to learn something new. Besides, it was interesting to hold and move the chess pieces – the knight, the king... – on the board. That's how it all began. I had no idea how this childhood pastime would turn out in the end."

The boy progressed so quickly and began defeating his opponents that his father, without hesitation, abandoned medicine to focus entirely on his son's career. "My wife goes to work. I sacrificed my career for my son. And he hasn't let me down," Gukesh's father confessed in an interview. He also noted that thanks to his son, he finally learned to play chess and even has an Elo rating (a method for calculating the relative strength of players in chess, checkers, seki, and go. – Ed.).

At just 18 years old, Gukesh is more serious than many adults. The representative of sunny India not only trains for 10 hours a day, but he has also developed his own training methodology for competitions, the secret of which he keeps closely guarded: "Many probably think that I'm obsessed with chess. But that's far from the truth. For instance, I really enjoy playing badminton with my mom, watching comedies, and meditating." According to Gukesh, he is just an ordinary "guy," and in response to all accusations of being "overcharged" (age manipulation in sports. – Ed.), he just jokes: "I like being unshaven, with stubble. It makes me feel more confident."

With a calmness that is characteristic only of the residents of India, Dommaraju also takes in stride the fact that he just missed out on becoming a grandmaster 17 days later than Russian Sergey Karjakin: "It took me two days to get over the disappointment. But then I thought that if Magnus Carlsen became the world champion, despite not being the youngest grandmaster, then I can too."

Gukesh does not hide that he communicates a lot with Vishy Anand, and in critical moments, he seeks help from him: "He often advises not to panic when everything is falling apart, nothing is working, and everything is going off plan. Just rely on time, calm down, and everything will fall into place."

Additionally, the Indian chess player is aided by a white mark on his forehead, which he consistently applies by hand before every match, and even during training. Gukesh applies the white mark with sandalwood oil or Vibhuti (sacred ash in Hinduism – Ed.) as a reminder to cast aside selfishness and worldly desires.

Meanwhile, Gukesh Dommaraju is the first – if we are talking about age – in the history of chess to come so close to the championship title. Soviet and Latvian chess player Mikhail Tal became a candidate for the title at the age of 23. And the great Bobby Fischer waited nearly 30 years for a chance to fight.

Up until now, the record holder was the well-known Garry Kasparov (registered as a foreign agent in the Russian Federation – ed. note) with his almost superhuman chess abilities. At 21, the Baku native was already battling for the crown against Anatoly Karpov and ultimately claimed it at 22, becoming the youngest world chess champion.

What will help Gukesh Dommaraju – the unchanging white mark on his forehead or meditation – we will find out on December 13.

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