CHENNAI: THERE was a point when Magnus Carlsen struggled to identify with D Gukesh’s thought process during the latter’s last round Candidates tie against Hikaru Nakamura. “I hate it,” the Norwegian said on live commentary. Ten minutes after the 17-year-old’s 10... cxd4 and 11... b4, Carlsen performed a u-turn. “I love what Gukesh has done,” the multiple former world champion said. “I didn’t even think of b4, it’s a nice. I don’t think I have seen it before.”
In that inspired 10-minutes, Gukesh went from one of the contenders to the only contender. Those moves invited Nakamura to burn time. It forced him to defend while the Indian further consolidated his position in the middle-game. The endgame was only going to be a draw as they played down to bare kings. After 71 moves, Gukesh had the half point. Now, he had to wait.
He tried to follow the game between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Fabiano Caruana (a winner in this match would have induced tie-breaks after Gukesh’s draw) on commentary. The stress, though, was too much. So, he went back to his hotel room with Grzegorz Gajewski, his main second. He also went on a walk with the Pole. That was when his dad came running out of the venue to say ‘it’s over’.
History was rewritten early on Monday morning. Gukesh had become the youngest to qualify for the title match. While Toronto bore witness to it, the top-board Olympiad winner from 2022 had made multiple small tweaks in his everyday rhythm to ensure he gave himself the best chance.
He dedicated the entirety of March to ‘fix his circadian rhythm’, according to Vishnu Prasanna, his primary trainer for over the last six years. “Compared to other events, he focussed a little bit less on chess,” Prasanna tells this daily. “He was actually resting and relaxing a lot more. Usually what happens is he used to be a morning person and sleep till late. So he was trying to fix his circadian rhythm and stuff like that. He was playing tennis in the morning, socialising, resting well and being free, mentally. That was the focus all of March, compared to his usual training. Of course, there was training but it was less intensive.”
Both of them also spent time in coffee shops to help Gukesh get into the ideal headspace. At the end of last year, he was struggling with the pressure of his own expectations. Both of them wanted to avoid this. ‘We constantly engaged in a lot of discussions,” Prasanna explains. “He has a big team now, not just me. We just meet in a coffee shop rather than in a pure training atmosphere, just spoke about a lot of things. How to deal with... change his perspective not on pressure itself but on his own expectations. He has very high expectations of himself so dealing with slight failures and so on and what to expect out of the Candidates. There were also lots of discussions on the scenarios one may encounter here (during the Candidates).”
It had a big bearing in the final result. After Gukesh’s loss to Alireza Firouzja in the seventh round, one may have expected him to question himself. But he doubled down; if anything, the loss spurred him on to the title. Even at other times, he could well have doubted himself, especially in the last round.
He did have a half-point advantage but the chasing pack was chess royalty: Nakamura, his opponent, was one of the pre tournament favourites and a veteran (he had become GM before Gukesh was born). Nepomniachtchi had the knowhow, winning the last two Candidates. Caruana, the third-highest rated player in history, had also won the Candidates before. In effect, three bonafide legends of the game were breathing down his neck when Sunday dawned.
This is where his clarity played a role. He never played for a draw against Nakamura. “We always play to win,” Prasanna says. “We can win but what’s the best way to go there. Be patient and wait for the opportunities. Be objective and wait for your chances. Nothing too reckless but go for the win when you have to.” When pre tournament predictions were being made, nobody gave Gukesh as much as a sniff because of his inexperience. But kept his focus, ensured he played sharp chess, kept his composure when push came to shove. He married all of those to etch a piece of history.
He’s now gunning for Ding Liren’s throne.