CHENNAI: The king had arrived home and that led to a frenzy as everybody, who were eagerly awaiting his arrival, wanted a piece of him.
D Gukesh, the newly-crowned world champion, was the most sought-after person on Monday. Having touched down at Chennai airport in the morning, the 18-year-old was mobbed soon after exiting the airport. Surrounded by security personnel and officials from Tamil Nadu government and the SDAT, Gukesh was handed a rousing welcome.
Amidst the celebrations, Gukesh was his usual self, calm and collected, something that was evident throughout the title-winning World Championship match against Ding Liren in Singapore. He was quick to thank everyone for supporting him.
"Thank you for all the support. It means a lot to bring back the trophy to India," said an elated Gukesh upon landing in Chennai.
Gukesh's rise from a young chess buff to a world chess champ has been an epic journey. Few children realize their dreams of becoming a world camp and Gukesh has beaten the odds to emulate his idol Viswanathan Anand.
At 18, Gukesh is also the youngest world champ, having surpassed the legendary Garry Kasparov.
The turning point in Gukesh's career was winning the Candidates tournament which gave him the opportunity to challenge Liren. The World Championship was a see-saw battle that went down to the wire with the winner emerging in the 14th and final game.
Gukesh's solid performance during the world title match was not a surprise as he has been a consistent performer in the last two years, including that in the Olympiads (Chennai and Budapest). And he has always had tall ambitions.
"It has always been like, you know (wanted), to become the best player in the world. And when I was a kid, being the world champion was a very important step towards the dream," said Gukesh at Velammal Nexus. And he is also quick to add that he still has a long way to go.
''But still it's clear that there are a lot of strong players and I still have a lot of improvement. And players like Magnus (Carlsen), they keep motivating me to work harder. And although this is a big achievement (World crown) and I know it comes at a very young age, I think that this is still a very, very long way to go. And my goal is to keep enjoying chess and to have a very long career and hopefully one day to become the best player," he said.
There were some critics who suggested that Ding underperformed deliberately. Gukesh has an interesting take on this subject.
"Anyone who understands high-level sports, it's clear that if you play 13 games at a high-level, in high-intensity, prepare for six months and if you come for the last game at a World Championship, you are pretty much dead at that point. We are basically two dead people playing chess and mistakes happen in those moments," he said.
Gukesh had also displayed his ability to handle setbacks during the World Championship, having lost the 12th game.
"It was quite tough, but I was still confident that I could pull through," he recalled.
That was mainly due to solid preparation and support in the form of brilliant seconds. His seconds team comprised the likes of Grzegorz Gajewski, Pentala Harikrishna, Radoslaw Wojtaszek (Poland), Jan-Krzysztof Duda (Poland), Jan Klimkowski (Poland) and Vincent Keymer (Germany).
Gajewski has worked with Anand before and his addition to Gukesh's team had proven to be a game-changer.
"Gajewski is more than a second to me. He has been my trainer for the last two years and we had the whole team. Gajewski was the head of the team and we also had Radoslaw, Harikrishna, Vincent, Jan-Krzystof, Duda and Vishy Sir helped us in some moments, so the whole team was amazing," said Gukesh.
Polish players have a reputation of being precise and meticulous in their preparation and Gukesh benefitted from their inputs.
"They (apart from Gajewski) were working very hard for me, it was harder for them because they were burning the midnight oil for me in order to help me prepare for the next games and it was very special. Paddy (Upton, mental conditioning coach) has made sure that I am emotionally, physically and mentally prepared for this huge challenge," said Gukesh.
"Four Polish in the seconds team was mostly based on the fact that I was comfortable with the guys and Gajewski knew all the Polish players and he has a lot of experience with them. And as a head of the team, it made a lot of sense. Each second has their own specialty and we tried to take the maximum out of it," he added.
Now, there are many fans who are curious about the next world championship event. And there are many who are hopeful of watching Gukesh take on Carlsen, who's considered to be the best in the sport. "He (Carlsen) is a good player and I hope to play against him soon," Gukesh signed off.