Dharshan Kumaran is a British Chess Grandmaster, neuroscientist, and medical doctor. His chess career started at an early age, coming second in the World Under-10 Championship in 1989, and achieving his International Master title at the age of 15, and Grandmaster title at the age of 19, in 1998. Kumaran took part in many international tournaments and achieved notable success.
He created a chess program, which contributed to the development of the Rybka computer, that went on to become one of the top-rated chess engines in the world.
In 2006, he quit playing chess professionally to work as a post-doctoral neuroscientist at the University College London Institute of Neurology. His research is focused on how the human brain processes visual information and on the neural basis of high-level cognition.
In 2016, he joined DeepMind, a Google subsidiary focusing on Artificial Intelligence research, contributing to their work in the field.