Now, becoming the best player in the world is what I care about most

What must it be like to fulfil your life's greatest dream at 18? It's been less than a week since Gukesh D became world champion, beating China's Ding Liren, and the Indian teen is still wrapping his head around this delightful predicament.

- Susan Ninan

BENGALURU: In an interview to HT, Gukesh opened up about challenges, uncertainties and fresh goals, among other things.

Excerpts:

To realise the dream that got you out of bed all these years, at just 18, must be hard to process... is it a challenge to chase fresh goals?

For the last year, starting from qualifying and winning the Candidates to preparing for the match - this has been the single most important thing. To actually finish this journey on a high was huge. When I had a moment alone after my win, I just thanked God and then went through all the messages from family and friends. I hadn't been in touch with them for a long time, so we chatted. I did not sleep the night I became world champion. But later, when I slept, woke up, and realised that I'm actually done with it, and there are no more games tomorrow, it was a weird feeling. It was weird not to have a racing heart.

It helps to know that this is not the end of the road. Becoming the best player in the world is actually what I care about the most now.

While Ding was resilient and fought brilliantly, it was you who was largely pressing in the match...how much of a difference did knowing that make on how you approached the games?