The Mental Game Of A Champion

Background

In a monumental turn, the chess world was rocked by the news of 17-year-old Gukesh's triumph in the 2024 FIDE Candidates, securing a remarkable 9/14. This victory has catapulted him into the spotlight as he prepares to challenge Ding Liren for the coveted World Chess Championship title in Nov-Dec 2024.

I don't usually watch chess videos, but I watched several of Gukesh's interviews yesterday to observe some patterns behind his historic success.

What are the underlying qualities and habits that characterise a champion?

First Principles

The lazy answer is that Gukesh played the best chess overall. His competitive mindset for the tournament led to him playing more consistently than his rivals (Caruana, Nakamura, Nepomniachtchi), but let's go beyond the surface level.

Here are the main qualities Gukesh displayed in this tournament (and through his chess career in general):

1. Dedication/Work Ethic - it is clear from the quality of his play that Gukesh prepared exceptionally well for this tournament. He was very well prepared in the opening, displayed a great understanding of the ensuing middlegames, and his calculation was superb.

We should also acknowledge the significant sacrifices that Gukesh's parents made to support him in the best way possible and create this opportunity for him to reach his full potential.

2. Resilience - One comment that surprised many people is when Gukesh shared that it was after his loss to Firouzja that he felt he reached his best form. Good players come back just as strong from a defeat, but the true greats (Carlsen, Kasparov, Fischer, and now Gukesh) come back even stronger after a loss.

3. Focus - Gukesh kept himself from being distracted by extraneous things during the tournament (except, briefly, the Caruana-Nepo game in Round 14, but at that point, his game vs. Nakamura was already a dead draw).

He also stayed calm throughout the whole event. This calm (compared to Anand's speed) separated Gukesh from his rivals in the final press conference, according to Gukesh's second, GM Gajewski.

4. Discipline - Gukesh kept to a strict routine during the Candidates, which allowed him to play his very best and not waste energy on unnecessary decisions before and after the game. This also extends to yoga and tennis for higher physical and mental stamina.

5. Competitive Spirit - When he was 11-12, Gukesh declared he wanted to become the World Champion. While many players put such dreams into the universe, you can only hope to manifest your goals by first powerfully visualising them.

6. Confidence—Gukesh wasn't at all perturbed by Carlsen's prediction, which put the obvious, apparent favourites of Caruana/Nakamura/Nepo as the most likely winners (with the young guns unlikely to win). After the Candidates, Carlsen himself admitted that he (and others) had underestimated Gukesh somewhat, likely being swayed by Gukesh's relatively weaker results in rapid and blitz time controls.

A more subtle of this also comes up in the dinner at Anand's place with the Indian Candidates (Pragg, Gukesh, Humpy and Vaishali). The other four considered that losing before a rest day would spoil a rest day, but Gukesh (prophetically, as it transpired) stood his ground that, if you're going to lose, it's best to lose just before a rest day, as you have a day to recover and get in the right mindset. (Gukesh had already demonstrated this in the 2024 Tata Steel Masters, where he won the next three games in a row after two losses and a rest day and finished in =1st place).

7. Adaptability - Gukesh is naturally a very tactical and dynamic player (recently creating a course called 'Attack Like A Super-Grandmaster' for ChessBase). Still, in the last round, when a draw was the optimal result for him as Black vs. Nakamura, he played very solidly and ensured that White wouldn't get any chances to win the game.

8. Strategic Thinking - Gukesh was able to qualify for the Candidates at the last minute through the FIDE Circuit, winning the hastily-arranged 'Chennai Masters' Super-GM tournament.

Ironically, the tournament organiser, Sagar Shah, originally got the idea from Anish Giri (who led the FIDE Circuit before Chennai) during a 2023 FIDE World Cup broadcast. While this turn of events wasn't in Gukesh's control, he made the most of the opportunities presented to him to make the Candidates in the first place.

9. Humility - Many have spoken of Gukesh's maturity beyond his years, as demonstrated in press conferences and interviews. He didn't take all the credit for himself at the final press conference. He brought his central second for the event, GM Gajewski, to the press conference, where he answered some questions. He also thanked the fans for their support and enthusiasm during the event.

10. Passion - It's evident that Gukesh loves chess, and in an old interview, his father shared that it was always Gukesh pushing his parents rather than the other way around.

In conclusion, we can see that, while Gukesh is clearly a tremendous talent, there are more significant factors than talent in determining one's success. And when all those factors are adopted consistently by a 'prodigy', you see records smashed - like Gukesh becoming the first teenager to win the Candidates (beating Kasparov's old record by 2-3 years).

Have Your Say

Please let me know what your thoughts are. Did we miss anything in this breakdown of Gukesh's mental game? Which of these insights jumped out at you the most?