GUKESH SUPER KING WITH GAJEWSKI-UPTON BY HIS SIDE

Trainer & mental coach recall challenges the Indian GM faced, how he retained his calm during those testing times & process he followed to become a world champ

- SWAROOP SWAMINATHAN

INSANELY mature. You don't normally use this phrase to describe the maturity of an 18-year-old, but it's a phrase Grzegorz Gajewski uses when talking about his ward, D Gukesh. He isn't alone.

Paddy Upton has an unwritten rule. Well, kind of. He doesn't normally work with young people because their ability to self-reflect isn't yet on point. A couple of minutes into his first conversation with the then-17-year-old, Upton made an exception. Because the South African realised the person on the other end of the internet connection didn't have the mind of a 17-year-old.

"His depth and level of self-awareness were remarkable," Upton tells this daily a day after Gukesh became the youngest undisputed world chess champion. This masthead spoke to both Gajewski and Upton to get an insight into how the teen pulled it off. When 55...Rf2 was on the board by Ding Liren in game 14 on Thursday, what was the Pole thinking? "It felt like a gift in the most unexpected moment," he says. "I was on my way to dinner and they were supposed to play for one more hour and maybe make a draw."

In an alternate universe, the Indian would not have punished the move. But Upton and Gukesh spent hours on what to do when you are on the doorstep of a win.

"What are the distractions of getting excited and over-attacking? You have half an eye on the result and there's a possibility of taking half an eye from the chessboard. That's when you may make a mistake."