Today's Edition
KUUMAR SHYAM (ABU DHABI)
Indian teenager Dommaraju Gukesh, 18, has returned home to Chennai, still busy accepting congratulatory wishes for becoming the world's youngest chess champion, while one of his newest team members, Paddy Upton, has provided insights into what went behind the scenes.
Celebrated mind coach Upton spoke exclusively to Aletihad on what went behind preparing Gukesh for his world title bid last week over China's Ding Liren in Singapore.
Gukesh overtook Garry Kasparov by a four-year margin to be the youngest champion, and his eventual victory in the final game of the 14-round series came against all odds even when stalwarts like Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura put Liren as a strong favourite in the ending stages.
Upton's pep talk and a tip to get better sleep ahead of the final two rounds did, perhaps, the most important trick for Gukesh, a remarkable feat considering Upton is not a chess player, and it may also go down as the first instance of employing a mind coach by a chess player.
Another tinge of irony was that Upton had not met Gukesh in person despite months of being part of his training process. When Upton realised that Gukesh was very fragile in the two days of the Championship, he got on a phone call and then flew out to Singapore, in time to watch his ward nail the feat, in style.
Had the contest remained tied after 14 rounds, it would have gone into a tie-breaker where Liren held advantage. Gukesh started on a losing note in the first game, but bounced back in the third. True to Liren's strengths, there was a spate of drawn games until the 11th which Gukesh won.
Approaching victory, Gukesh blundered immediately on the next day, promoting Carlsen and Nakamura to troll Gukesh. Enter Upton's final touches and the tide turned on the final regular day when the match looked for a draw, but Gukesh kept pushing and went for the jugular.
Now, as the initial brouhaha has subdued, Upton has shared his insights with Aletihad:
On Him Coming Onboard:
It was through Viren Rasquinha [former India hockey captain] and a combination of his sponsor, Westbridge Capital, as they were looking for every advantage to support Gukesh. I don't know anything about chess, and he obviously has a team that works with him around strategy and tactics. On the mental side, I was just managing his mind through the different scenarios – winning, losing or tied.
For example, we knew he was going to make mistakes sometimes on the board. So how does he let go and not undermine his confidence? Similarly, when he's ahead of the game, how does he avoid premeditation or being impatient? And when the game's level and the last game, like it exactly happened, how is he going to deal with that situation? We also worked on all aspects: his diet, exercise program, sleep, rest and recovery or recharging batteries and not just overthink chess all day.
On Chess and No Mind Coaches:
You're quite right in that I've worked in 20 different sports now, pretty much at the highest level. And the other 19, the primary performance tool was some physical aspects. And the mental work that I was doing was sort of the supporting function. In chess, the primary performance tool is the brain and I am working directly on it and still not involved in the strategy part of it. Other than that, all human beings, not just athletes, have mental distractions. So we worked on how Gukesh handles various situations.
I find it very strange that chess players haven't had mental coaches, because the reality is every human being on the planet can potentially get some value from a mental coach to help them manage themselves around their performance. I do think, going forward, we'll see more and more chess players will be utilising mental coaches.
BTS on the Finale's Climax:
We knew that he was never going to play the perfect move, the perfect game every time over. There would be nerves. Even Magnus Carlsen in his first World Championship was quite nervous. So when Gukesh lost the 12th game, he was obviously disappointed to lose his advantage. But when I spoke to him, he had processed the loss and he had such incredible clarity. He was able to really just press the reset button... he was in a very good space. He is what I would term a, a genuine big-match temperament player, meaning he can deliver his best performances under the highest pressure situations.
Knowing his ability to play under pressure, I was never going to go to Singapore. But I had such a good feeling about the space he was in, I decided to get on an aeroplane and fly over there to watch him win the World Championship. In fact, on the flight, I was playing a movie over and over in my head imagining myself hugging him. It was going to be the first time I'd ever met him in person because we did about six months' worth of work, but it was all over video calls.
I think, there were a number of times when the game was petering out to a tame draw. And Mukesh's strategy was to keep Ding at the table for as long as possible to tire him out. Obviously that strategy, over time, paid dividends by the end of the 14th game, and he ended up making that mistake.
