World chess champion D Gukesh on Friday received a grand welcome from the Chennai Super Kings at the MA Chidambaram Stadium ahead of IPL 2025, besides meeting Ravichandran Ashwin and playing chess with him.

Ashwin, who has returned to play for Chennai in IPL after a nine-year absence, was thrilled to meet Gukesh, the youngest world chess champion.

“World champion of chess! ♟️A Chennai paiyan at heart! 💛A sparring with Ashwin! 🦁🤝," Chennai tweeted on Friday morning. Watch the video here:

Last year was a milestone one for Gukesh, as he became just the second Indian, after the legendary Viswanathan Anand, to win the World Chess Championship.

Gukesh broke Garry Kasparov’s record as well, becoming the youngest world chess champion and the first teenager to win the title.

In January, Gukesh was honoured with the prestigious Major Dhyanchand Khel Ratna award by President Droupadi Murmu.

Three Indian chess players are in the top 10, Gukesh is ranked third, just behind World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen and world no. 2 Hikaru Nakamura. Arjun Erigaisi holds the fifth spot and R Praggnanandhaa is ranked eighth.

In a recent chat, Anand spoke about the meteoric rise of young Indian chess players like Gukesh, Praggnanandhaa and Erigaisi, who have taken the world by storm.

“In some ways, we already are the superpower in chess. There are many metrics by which we are. There are many measures by which some other countries are. We are not dominant like the Soviet Union used to be, but if you take, for instance, the age of our top players, with me as an exception, I think the oldest one is 21," Anand said while speaking to TV9 Network. 

“They’re all incredibly young, which means they have a long time ahead. Secondly, they are all in the top 10, top 20, or top 50 and the number keeps increasing. They are all there together and can you imagine how fantastic that is for us," Anand asked.

As for Ashwin, he has picked 180 wickets in the Indian Premier League from 212 games at an economy rate of 7.12