Remember the names

One of them is the prince of brains, the other is the high priestess of brawn. But both grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju and MMA fighter Puja Tomar agree that in order to reach their final form, an athlete must master the ego.

- By SADAF SHAIKH.

You never forget your first love—or the first sport you loved. For a carrom buff, the thwack of a striker connecting with another disc on the board might sound like a new Beatles song. For a football fanatic, the transfer of kinetic energy from a swinging leg to an airborne orb might feel like Thor wielding Mjölnir. And for the world's youngest chess champion, watching a frustrated opponent's table smash—one heard around the world—must feel like summiting Everest itself.

In June 2025, world number one Magnus Carlsen dramatically fell to Gukesh Dommaraju at the Norway Chess 2025 tournament. A month later, the 19-year-old grandmaster logs onto Zoom from Chennai to chat with mixed martial artist Puja Tomar, 31, who became the first Indian to win a UFC fight last year. A lot has happened for both athletes since their respective internet-breaking victories. Tomar looks visibly refreshed, having just returned from a family vacation in Thailand to recuperate from her loss against Ireland's Shauna Bannon in March. Just the night before, Dommaraju caught the red-eye back from Croatia after losing to Carlsen in the SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz tournament. Neither of them, however, seems too fazed by the prospect of a precipitous drop from the heights they've climbed to. Coming from the world of sport, where you're only as good as your last game, how do these two headline-making players toe the line between self-congratulating and self-flagellating? They don't answer in unison, but through the course of this interview, it becomes clear that their thoughts are in tandem: By upholding grace when the stakes are the highest.

Vogue India: A big part of who someone becomes as a sportsperson is dictated by their childhood. Puja, you had a difficult childhood. Did that make you a tough player or a gentle spirit?