Interview with Gukesh D: “Ultimate goal is to be the number one in the World”

15-year-old Indian grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju showed an amazing performance this summer winning three open tournaments in Spain: 1st Chessable Sunway Formentera Chess Festival 2022, 1st Menorca Chess Open 2022 and the 48th La Roda Open 2022.

Gukesh scored 22/26 points staying unbeaten during all three events. After the Menorca Open, he had the live rating of 2660, leaping to the 80th position on the world live rating list, thus becoming the youngest Indian to break into World Top 100 in the live ratings. Gukesh now holds the 68th position on the world live rating list, with the live rating of 2674.6.

In the extensive interview after winning the 1st Chessable Sunway Formentera Chess Open 2022, Gukesh spoke about his experience in Spain, the goals for this year, and the upcoming 44th Chess Olympiad 2022 which will be held from July 28 – August 10 in his hometown Chennai.

“All three tournaments (in Spain) were quite strong and had their own difficulties. A 10 rounds format (in Formentera) was especially difficult as I needed to stay focused throughout the event. I am just in a very good form…” explained Gukesh for the start.

This year the youngest Indian to break into World Top 100 will debut in the 44th Chess Olympiad 2022 playing the second board for the Indian B team. Being asked about his personal goals and the goals of the Indian team, he said: “For me, it’s a great honor to play for India in the biggest team event in chess. It is my first time, so I am a little bit nervous, but I am looking forward to it and it is even more special because it’s happening in my hometown – Chennai. I think we have a pretty good team, everyone is very talented and they are capable to play much better than they are. I think our team will just try to have fun and do our best. For me, I will try to play a lot of strong players and score as many points as possible.”.
Read more: Indian team starts preparations for 44th Chess Olympiad 2022

Gukesh is the best World player in his age category (U16), but he explained that this position doesn’t put additional pressure on him: “Being the World number one U16 doesn’t really add pressure on me because I’ve been the best player in my age category more often than not in my career, so that is pretty normal for me. The ultimate goal is to be the number one player in the World, but the current goal is to cross 2700.“. See the whole interview below.