Who is Sergey Sklokin, the 12-year-old who beat Gukesh in FIDE World Blitz Championship?

The 12-year-old Sergey Sklokin stunned World chess champion D. Gukesh in the third round of the FIDE World Blitz Championship 2025 on Monday.

Sklokin, who holds the title of FIDE Master, played with white pieces and pushed Gukesh into time trouble, eventually inducing a blunder on the 70th move. Sklokin was up two pawns and a bishop when Gukesh resigned on the 80th move.

Sklokin also played in the World Rapid Championship, where he finished 90th and gained 226.4 rating points, the most for any player in the Open category.

Born in 2013, Sklokin is half-Armenian and half-Russian and plays under the FIDE Federation flag. He had attained his title of FIDE Master, which is two levels below Grandmaster, in 2024.

Before that, he was one of 13 kids selected to be part of the FIDE Chessable Academy’s in-person camp, where he trained with GM Judit Polgar and GM Artur Yusupov. Gukesh is not the only Grandmaster Sklokin has defeated. The 12-year-old has bettered several GMs, including Hikaru Nakamura, in online chess.

In 2023, the child prodigy was triple the World chess champion in the Under-10 category, winning the blitz, rapid, and chess composition title.