They stand beside each other, small and serious, holding their national Under-11 trophies, nearly half their size. There’s a photograph of Savitha Shri and Gukesh from nine years ago. They had swapped trophies – Open and girls’, each clutching the other’s – possibly for the photograph.
They went to the same school in Chennai, travelled to chess tournaments together and sometimes returned home with titles from the same event. Back then, they were simply two kids who happened to be very good at chess, with no idea where the game might take them. Gukesh’s rise was meteoric. Then came the difficult part. The wins became harder to find and a prolonged struggle for form followed. The Olympiad has usually been a happy place for him. She was easily India’s best performer across both sections. Savitha first became interested in the game while watching her older brother Mugesh play. Her father, Baskar, then an electrical technician in Singapore, initially had little idea what competitive chess would demand. It wasn’t. There were tournaments to enter, coaches to pay and journeys to make. Eventually, the arithmetic became impossible. Both his children played chess, but the family could not afford to pursue the game seriously for both. Savitha carried the Indian women’s team to an Olympiad bronze, repeatedly finding ways out of difficult positions. The result kept India in medal contention heading into the final round. With a medal at stake, Savitha again recovered from a losing position, found equality and secured the draw that helped India take bronze.
The following year, in 2018, both won world titles in their respective age groups, the Under-12 Open and girls’ titles, at the World Cadets Championship in Spain. He became a grandmaster at 12 years, won the Candidates tournament at 17 and, at 18, became the youngest undisputed world champion in history. In 2022 and 2024, Gukesh won individual gold medals on the top board. This time, a dip in form saw him moved down to Board 4, lined up against lower-rated opposition. Away from the spotlight and the marquee match-ups, the 20-year-old began finding wins again – and, with them, flashes of his familiar swindling ways, finding resources in difficult positions and turning games around. Savitha, a 19-year-old international master, went unbeaten with a remarkable 9/10 – eight wins and two draws, to claim individual gold on Board 5. Gukesh won individual silver with 8.5/11, his seven wins and three draws were followed by his only defeat of the tournament in the final round. Against Chinese WGM Zhai Mo in Round 10, she blundered a pawn in an equal position and then missed an exchange sacrifice, but still found the wherewithal to turn an inferior position into victory.
