How a story of American ultra-marathon runner and forgetting candidates qualification helped D Gukesh win Chennai Grand Masters | Chess News

The smile that refused to disappear from D Gukesh’s face said it all. Just a week back, with the pressure of qualifying for the Candidates weighing him down it seemed as if he had even forgotten how to smile. But as he clinched the Chennai Grand Masters event on the final day on Thursday following a drawn game with P Harikrishna, the Candidates is now within touching dance. Of course, he has to wait until the end of World Rapid and Blitz event next week to get official confirmation, but unless Anish Giri, comes up with something special at Samarkand, Gukesh’s – who is still undecided about taking the flight to Uzbekan — place seems safe for now.
Going into the final day, just needing a draw to win the tournament, there were some nervy moments for Gukesh. That his father Rajnikanth accompanied him all the way till the playing hall, holding his hands as if he was taking his son back to the kindergarten days revealed as much. In the end, even though the draw meant Gukesh and Erigaisi finished joint-top in terms of points, the former clinched the title courtesy a superior Sonneborn-Berger-Tie-Break variable (13.75 compared to Erigaisi’s 13.50).

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The title win couldn’t have come at a better time for Gukesh, who has endured a tough few months. At every tournament, in search of Candidates berth he has been putting himself under pressure, trying way too hard. And this event finally happened to be the one where he discovered himself.
“After the World Cup, things went horribly wrong,” Gukesh said. “I wasn’t in a good mental space. It was a new thing for me to handle the Candidates expectations. Till London (Chess Classic), I had very bad results but I was very frustrated because I wasn’t able to play anywhere near to my level. Finally I’m happy that this Chennai tournament went very well. Good to have an impression of what it’s like to be playing like myself,” he added.
That relief was evident here. In search of the Candidate spot, Gukesh had drifted off a bit, experiencing a new phase in his career, losing around 35-40 points in the circuit. At each tournament the harder he tried, the more makes he seemed to commit. “I was more affected the Candidates pressure. I was trying very hard for sure after the World Cup. Had a couple of bad events and I wasn’t in a good mood but I was still pushing. Things didn’t go well. Finally, I managed to fully focus on this tournament and was really, really happy that I played well,” Gukesh elaborated on the last couple of months.

For a 17-year-old, who has seen nothing but his career graph improving all the time, the aftermath of the World Cup had been tough to handle. That he featured in tournaments back to back didn’t seem to help his cause. “I was clearly not handling it well till now. This phase is probably where I have felt at my lowest till now. After the Grand Swiss, I had a 20 days break before London. And we (Vishnu and I) talked about it. It has surely helped me,” Gukesh said.
Every day GM Grzegorz Gajewski, who has been part of his seconds for a year now, would keep reminding him of his good days. And ahead of the Chennai event, Gajewski would wake up at 4 or 5 am (his time) to help Gukesh prepare for his opponents.
Childhood coach chips in
Also around to help was his coach Vishnu Prasanna, who he has been working with since he was a kid, Gukesh would find the confidence back.
“Everybody who is fighting for qualification for the Candidates is going through that pressure. I think that was one of the reasons for his poor form in the last month. That he hadn’t managed it well enough. Now, I think he has overcome that,” Prasanna said.
After the Grand Swiss event, the 20-day break that Gukesh had would eventually become the game-changer. Honest conversations with Prasanna helped; one of the first suggestions from his coach was to forget Candidates qualification. “I have known him since he was a little kid. We have discussed everything. Seen his arc completely. I can be very honest with him. We both knew something was very wrong. We just wanted to get back to the original state, forget about qualification,” Prasanna added.
Having made Gukesh watch documentaries of those who reached Mt Everest without oxygen cylinders in his formative years, Prasanna would now make him watch the story of Courtney Dauwalter, an American ulra-marathon runner. In many ways, it was a reflection of what his career was going through as well. It wasn’t going to be a sprint all the way. And the time the London event ended, Prasanna was beginning to see signs of change. “At London, he was already playing better but not yet there. Here, he was not at his peak but you can say that he wasn’t playing badly. Think he was back to his original self. He’s not self sabotaging himself. That’s what happened at the Grand Swiss. Mostly he was self sabotaging himself there,” Prasanna said.

While all the focus would eventually shift to Candidates provided Gukesh makes the cut, he can enjoy a couple of days off for now. And as far as the last few months go, Gukesh has this to say: “Everyone needs to go through phases like this. Sure this phase would help me a lot in the future. Mainly, I’m relieved that I’m finally playing good chess.”