Gukesh DommarajuThis 18 year old sensation shocked the world by becoming youngest world champion By defeating Ding Liren of China in the World Chess Championship. Throughout the 14 games, Gukesh showed remarkable mental strength and fortitude to maintain his resolve and emerge victorious in the toughest of circumstances. Not many people know, but Gukesh got self-confidence as well as someone else’s support in the decisive battle against Ding Liren.
paddy upton Needs no introduction. The renowned mental coach of professional athletes had previously worked with the Indian men’s cricket team during their 2011 World Cup win and led the Indian men’s hockey team to a bronze medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
In a wide-ranging conversation with Hindustan Times Digital, Upton talked about working with Gukesh in the World Chess Championship match against Liren, highlighting the 18-year-old player’s tremendous mental resolve. During the conversation, Paddy compared Gukesh to Rahul Dravid, saying that the youngster’s behavior after the final performance was a “masterclass in humility”.
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How happy were you to see this amazing result of Gukesh? The youngster suffered a setback in the very first game; How impressed are you with his determination?
I am so happy for her. To come here and see them do that is one of the highlights of my playing career. But more importantly, it is to see from a distance how such a young competitor has conducted himself over the tough and grueling 14 days of the 18-day tournament. Ding played some incredible chess and really tested Gukesh’s skills to the fullest – initially coming back from a 0-1 deficit, then moving ahead only to lose his lead. But to maintain such incredible composure, beyond the first game, game in and game out, 5, 6, 7 hours of play was truly remarkable and worthy of a World Championship title.
How did Gukesh prepare for the World Championship? Can you give a little insight into how his mind works during preparation?
He was a consummate professional. He had what I would call gold standard preparation, meaning he paid attention to every aspect that would affect his performance. He detailed everything from his diet, exercise, sleep, working with his team, strategy, his tactics, spotting the ball, finishing the game, the mental side of his game, social interactions, to his free time. Have paid attention since. When he got time to rest between games. He’ll also pay real attention to what recovery time looks like – making sure he’s getting enough rest and recovery, but not so much that his performance is compromised.
He just looked at every aspect of his preparation and made sure that there was nothing that when he gets to the end of the tournament, we can look back and say, hey, we should have done it a little more right. And that’s the gold standard preparation, when you project yourself to the end of time and look back, make sure you haven’t made any mistakes. This may seem obvious, but there are a lot of athletes and teams who overlook certain aspects or over-prioritize or under-prioritize certain aspects, which they end up regretting at the end of time. One of the big things was to be so professional that there were no regrets. Win or lose, no regrets.
In previous games, we have seen Gukesh going to his zone and meditating with his eyes closed. Do you think this ability to isolate himself from the outside world is what sets him apart?
This is one of the skills that a chess player needs. Yes. For any athlete, it is important to be able to focus properly and be fully present. And especially in a game that is almost entirely mental and lasts 6-7 hours, the ability to maintain focus is really important, and very few people can be that high and completely focused with the amount of focus in the field. Can last six hours continuously. What we call in some games the ability to switch up and switch down.
You have times when you figure out the next move; You understand all the options, you’ve done all the thinking you need to do, and then you just need to give your mind a little rest. You close your eyes and it’s really about taking away all the visual stimuli. And it’s almost a way to recharge, recharge a little bit and top up the battery.
If we go back a bit, how did you come in contact with Gukesh? How long have you been associated with them?
I started working with them in May and it was through their sponsor, Sandeep Singhal of Westbridge Capital. He reached out to see if I would consider working with Gukesh. In the beginning, I was unsure about working with a chess player and a 17-year-old boy, but it didn’t take long for me to realize that I was talking to someone very special. And yes, I met him in person for the first time, and after the match last night I hugged him like world champion.
You have, in the past, worked with the World Cup-winning cricket team in 2011, the hockey team that won the bronze medal at the Olympics earlier this year and now Gukesh. Do you feel you have a special connection with India? And secondly, how is working in chess different from cricket and hockey when it comes to mental conditioning?
I think over the years, I have been working a lot in India since 2008, from the cricket team to the 2011 World Cup. But I’ve done a lot of work in the business context in India, just giving talks and workshops about sports lessons for business. I have been involved in nine or ten IPLs. Therefore, relations with India are continuously growing. First the World Cup win, then the hockey bronze and now Gukesh’s victory is the cherry on top. But the cake has been baked for many years.
My experience is that chess is not much different from cricket and hockey. There is not that much difference between one game and another. The difference is between personalities. I have worked with opening batsmen in the same cricket team who I have worked with very differently because they have very different personalities. Take Virender Sehwag and Gautam Gambhir. They are very different people. Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli are very different people.
Gukesh is a unique person. And I think the big difference with chess is that in other sports I’ve worked on, the primary skill is the physical skill and the mental skill is the secondary skill. Whereas in chess your primary skill is brain. So, the work I am doing with Gukesh is directly on his primary performance device. This is the central difference. But the actual content of the conversation is not much different. And the example that illustrates the fact that I don’t know anything about chess. The first thing I did in hockey, I didn’t know anything about hockey. I have never hit a hockey ball with a hockey stick in my life. But actually not knowing chess did not compromise my work with Gukesh in any way because I was not talking to him about chess. They had an amazing team doing this. We were talking about everything else.
Can you tell us what a typical session with Gukesh would be like? Is there anything in particular that you guys work on?
Their role is to approach the conversation with questions. He usually came with two questions. And it would take one and a half hour to discuss it in detail. And I will help him find the best possible answers to his questions. Therefore, the conversation was always guided by his questions.
This is one of the things he was a pleasure to work with because he came up with excellent questions that guided the conversation to really relevant aspects of preparing for the Chess World Championship.
Do you think chess is a game that requires mental strength the most as one has to always be one step ahead of the opponent?
Having a great strategy is a little different. If you don’t have a good enough strategy, you will lose every chess match you play. But to support the strategy, you have to keep your mind as focused as possible. And yesterday was a great example. According to everyone else – even the computers – the game was going to be a draw. But in an instant, Ding got distracted and missed something important. So, you know, it’s no different from cricket. It is possible that in a moment your mind gets shaken and you get bowled or out. So, mind is important. And especially at critical moments in the game, can you remain completely focused and present? There is no better example than what happened last night.
You have worked with many high-profile names like Virat Kohli, Rohit Sharma and MS Dhoni. Does Gukesh remind you of any of these stars?
There are similarities with other athletes. But in terms of the level of self-awareness he has achieved by the age of 18, it puts him in a very unique class of athletes. The achievements he has had at this age, the maturity he has had, the thing that is most important to me is his ability to self-reflect, which is way beyond his age. The other thing that’s always important to me in the game of life is this – it’s one thing to achieve greatness on the playing field or on the chessboard, but that’s fleeting success.
When a person is a really high quality human being with real values, real morals, real ethics, real character, real humility, that’s when you get a great athlete that becomes a true great to me. A great example of this is someone like Rahul Dravid, who has such a solid character and amazing humility.
Gukesh is one of those special people. He is not just a special chess player. One need only listen to his last press interview. You’ve got an 18-year-old guy who’s full of emotion, who just won a world title, and he gives, I don’t know, a 45-minute interview. It was a masterclass in humility where he was asked how he felt, and he spent probably four minutes praising his opponent. It was real. It was authentic. None of this was scripted. This shows genuine respect and genuine humility. When asked what were the real key moments in his journey that set up his success, he immediately, spontaneously started speaking about other people, about his team, about his family , started speaking about his God.
Even when they were prompted to speak about themselves, they failed to speak about the people who supported them along the way. And it wasn’t scripted. It was all incomprehensible. That was the real Gukesh there. When you have that quality in an athlete, you know you really have someone special. This is not just an ideal as a chess player. It is an ideal for every young Indian and every young athlete. So, for me, that’s what’s special about Gukesh as a person.
What is the way forward? Will you continue working with Gukesh, have you both had any conversations?
No, we don’t have any yet. It’s all very new and very fresh. But we will talk about it. I will meet him a little later today.
