Processing emotions quickly and remaining focused key to Gukesh’s success: Coach Gajewski

Processing emotions quickly comes naturally to reigning world champion D Gukesh, an effective tool in his effort to tame new challenges, said his Polish coach Grzegorz Gajewski, asserting that losses make him return to the board more committed. Gukesh hasn’t enjoyed a great run post his world title win against Ding Liren last year in Singapore. At the ongoing Norway Chess, he lost the first two games to world No.1 Magnus Carlsen and compatriot Arjun Erigaisi.

But he turned the tables in the return matches of the six-player double round-robin tournament to jump to second spot on the points table. On how Gukesh processed his emotions after beating Carlsen in Round 6 to be ready for the test against Erigaisi the next day, Gajewski said, “He was just focused on the game (against Erigaisi). It was nice, definitely very nice (to beat Carlsen in Round 6 on Sunday), but today (Monday) is a new challenge and after that there is another challenge,” said Gajewski.

A calm Gukesh got the better of Arjun Erigaisi a day after catching Carlsen off-guard to secure his first Classical win against his Indian opponent to make it two wins in a row, which placed him in contention for the title here.

“One of the main things that we wanted to focus here on was to just be fully committed and fully present, fully focused on every game, regardless of the results. He actually started the tournament with two losses and it did not discourage him from fighting and he didn't lose his spirit or anything like that. So that's a very big success in terms of how the (previous) tournament ends,” added the Polish coach, who started touring with Gukesh in 2023. “We enjoy the good wins and we enjoy the points, but we try to move on and focus on the next games,” he said.

The coach said that Norway Chess had given Gukesh the confidence that even if he starts on a losing note, he can still stage a comeback to be in contention for the title. Gukesh was placed sixth and last after losing the first two games.

“This (staging a comeback) is a very nice thing to achieve for him because, from now on, every next tournament, if he starts badly, he will know that it doesn't necessarily have to be a bad tournament for him. He was just making moves (against Carlsen and Erigaisi); he was completely in the zone from the first move to the last move of almost every game. So, we know what is the desired mindset for the game,” he noted.

On whether he is just obsessed about chess or does he play some other games as well to tune up for tournaments, Gajewski said, Gukesh does play tennis and squash.

“Obviously tennis has a big influence in his life apart from chess. A little bit of pickleball, especially when we travel to America, because it's far more popular there. Hopefully, here on the rest day, we'll either play squash or padel because this is what we played the last time we came here. It's not like he's looking for an excuse to get out of the zone, but he understands that it's very useful,” the coach added.

Gajewski said it made perfect sense to move away from the high pressure situation of chess after a match or two.

“…because to be fully focused and 100 percent motivated in your preparation for the next opponent is very energy draining. So it makes a lot of sense and it's very useful for a player to be able to get out of the zone for a couple of hours, have some sports, go for a walk, enjoy it. And then you come back, sort of a small reset. So he definitely understands the importance and value in that,” the coach said. PTI AM UNG