Hundreds of students from the Velammal Vidyalaya, the school where Gukesh studies, lined up at the airport at least one hour before his flight landed to greet the 17-year-old chess prodigy.
The 16-year-old top seed was in fine form and remained unbeaten through the nine rounds. He finished the tournament with a victory over fellow-Indian V Praneeth, an International Master, late on Friday.
Grandmaster R Praggnanadhaa played out a solid draw with World champion D Gukesh in the eighth round of the Tata Steel Masters.
Grandmasters M R Lalith Babu and Henrik Teske of Germany played out a hard-fought draw between them to maintain their lead at the end of the seventh round of the 5th Chennai Open International Grandmasters chess tournament in Chennai on Saturday.
In the women's event, India's D Harika drew with Nino Bastiashvili (Georgia) to move up to four points. She is in joint third place with six others.
Viswanathan Anand is the third Indian in the top 10, occupying the 10th spot with an ELO rating of 2750.
Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa cruised to a smooth victory against Nguyen Thai Dai Van of Czech Republic, while Aravindh Chithambaram emerged as the sole leader.
The draw left both players on an identical tally of 6.5 points each, with just one game left in the 14-round classical time control format, still shy of 1 point in order to win the title.
In a groundbreaking moment for Indian chess, Arjun Erigaisi has become the second player from India and the sixteenth player globally to surpass the 2800 live rating mark.
With her family in tow, Humpy met the PM and described it as a "once-in-a-lifetime privilege."
Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh won the Chennai Grand Masters Chess Championship title in Chennai on Thursday, edging out compatriot Arjun Erigaisi on the tie-break after they finished equal on points.
'I spoke to Paddy, and I made some changes.' 'After that, I slept well in the last two days -- at least eight hours each day.' 'So, I was fresh in the games. Sleep is very important.'
Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram crashed through the defenses of super-solid Anish Giri to jump in to sole lead after the end of the seventh round of Prague Masters.
Praggnanandhaa is on his own at the Azerbaijan capital of Baku as his personal coach RB Ramesh is away in another country.
The Indian men's team got off to another 3-0 start, led by Dommaraju Gukesh's triumph over H Stefansson of Iceland, in the second round.
Former World Rapid Chess champion Koneru Humpy wants the All India Chess Federation to increase women's tournaments.
Indian Grandmasters D Gukesh and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi bowed out of the FIDE World Cup chess tournament after losing to Norwegian Magnus Carlsen and Azerbaijan's Nijat Abasov respectively in Baku on Wednesday.
Teenaged Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, who stunned Magnus Carlsen in the eighth round of the Airthings Masters online rapid chess tournament, was delighted, yet modest in his moment of triumph, saying he just wanted to enjoy playing against the world No. 1.
Indian Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa defeated Russia's Vladislav Artemiev in the 15th and final round of the preliminary phase of the Airthings Masters.
Grandmaster Nodirbek Yakubboe said he didn't respond to Indian GM R Vaishali's handshake gesture because of 'religious reasons'.
Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh, 18, has claimed a historic victory over defending World Champion Ding Liren in the 14th game of the World Chess Championship in Singapore on Thursday.
"This is no small feat", Prime Minister Narendra Modi said as he led the nation in hailing young Indian Grandmaster Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa's runner-up finish.
Three of the four Indian Open team players are in line for gold and silver medals for the individual performance.
Grandmaster D Gukesh endured a heartbreak in the final tie-breaker against Wei Yi of China and had to be content with a joint second place finish at the Tata Steel Masters chess tournament in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.
With the triumph, the Indian GM qualifies for next year's Tata Steel Masters Group.
World number seven Erigaise Arjun started his campaign on a positive note, outplaying Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan in the first round of the Sharjah Masters chess tournament in Sharjah.
At the end of the fifth round India's Aravindh Chithambaram is now followed by four players -- the Iranian duo of Amin Tabatabaei and Bardiya Daneshvar and Americans Hans Moke Niemann and Sam Shankland -- who all have four points each.
Vaishali stretched her lead to 2.5 points following her second win under classical time control.
Indian chess grandmasters R Praggnanandhaa and Aravindh Chithambaram continued to remain in joint lead after drawing their sixth-round games in the Prague Masters Chess tournament.
Seventh-round loss gave me energy, motivation to aim for title: Gukesh
Praggnanandhaa did not have to sweat hard to hold Caruana under Classical but in the Armageddon the American was a transformed player as he took advantage of his white pieces.
Another game to end through repetition of moves was between Gukesh and Gujrathi.
Gukesh to clash with Alireza on what promises to be a photo finish
Indian Grandmaster S P Sethuraman won the Barcelona Open chess tournament title in Barcelona, while compatriot Karthikeyan Murali finished third.
Indian Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa got off to a flier and defeated Firouzja Alireza of France in the Armageddon game in the first round of Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger on Tuesday.
The 17-year-old Gukesh is in joint lead with Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi.
Praggnanandhaa will meet pre-event rating favourite Fabiano Caruana of United States while Abdusattorov has to tackle the solid defences of Vincent Keymer of Germany in the other key clashes of the 11th round.
India's top player and Asian Games gold medallist Koneru Humpy, who had come back into medal contention after a modest performance on day two, had to settle for the sixth place though she logged eight points.
It all started as an extra-curricular activity in school, which later became a life-long passion for D Gukesh and led to him becoming one of the best chess exponents in the world.
After the draw with Iranian turned French player Firouza, Gukesh has seven points for his sole second spot.
