How does Gukesh keep his heart rate under control under pressure? It’s all in the mind, say experts

THE TENSION of the end game takes a grip as World Champion Gukesh Dommaraju has under a minute left on his clock in the crucial first game of his quarter-final against the World No 2, USA’s Fabiano Caruana, on Sunday.Despite the pressure exerted Caruana in their Freestyle Chess battle at Weissenhaus, Germany, Gukesh’s heart is trotting at 78 beats per minute (BPM). Caruana has 35 seconds more on his clock than Gukesh. Despite the position being equal, Caruana is on the edge, his heartbeat a gallop at 124 BPM.
With the Weissenhaus leg of the Freestyle Grand Slam Chess Tour fitting chess players with heart rate monitors during games, the physiological responses of elite grandmasters to high-pressure situations has become apparent.The biggest takeaway has been how calm Gukesh can be under pressure.
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“How does he do it? Who is he!” asks an astounded grandmaster Peter Leko on the official commentary on Chess.com as chess legend Judit Polgar chuckles.
Renowned mind guru Paddy Upton, who recently worked with Gukesh for six months, says he did not work on managing heart rate with Gukesh as he plotted his way to the World Championship title.
“It’s got nothing to do with managing heart rate. Heart rate is the body’s response to a message from the brain, or some perceived threat from the outside world that passes through the brain and sends messages to the body. The solution is to manage thoughts, and heart rate naturally follows,” Upton tells The Indian Express.
He explains that athletes experience elevated heart rates (even when sitting) because of two reasons: the pressure that comes from chasing success in the future; or the feeling of nerves, anxiety and fear because you’re scared of something going wrong or making a make.Story continues below this ad
“Both these things lead to an elevated heart rate. One of the reasons Gukesh does not suffer so much from pressure, fear, nerves and anxiety is because he does not spend so much time fixating on the result. He’s able to maintain his focus in the present moment. Anyone who is able to be fully present will have a lot more calmness and won’t have an elevated heart rate. So Gukesh’s ability to keep his heart rate down is an indication of his focus on the present moment,” Upton said.
01How Gukesh’s heart was unflappable despite high-pressure situationsIn the Gukesh vs Caruana game, there were multiple moments that demonstrated Gukesh’s control over his heart.
At multiple points in the end game, Gukesh’s time falls down to 11 seconds or lower, but his heart rate stays around 70 BPM. At one stage, you see Gukesh make a move with two seconds left. His heart rate still hovers at 74 BPM. The stress of the situation is reflected in Caruana’s heart rate which soars around 134 BPM. Then, Gukesh makes a move with just one second left on his clock. Still 78 BPM.
It was a feat that left even Caruana impressed when told about it afterwards. He said that his heart rate was touching 170 BPM when he played in a blitz tournament last year. “So 120 is alright,” he said.
But 70 BPM? “That’s impressive. Of course you can see that like me he also gets nervous. But his heart rate doesn’t elevate,” Caruana added.
Gukesh’s mastery of his heart rate is a constant from the opening phase. With Gukesh and Caruana having expended half an hour each on their clocks, Gukesh has maintained a heart rate of 62. Caruana’s rate is rising at 79 BPM.
Heart rate data from the Gukesh vs Fabiano Caruana quarter-final. (Screengrab: YouTube/Chess.com)
In the middle game, the position on the board is largely equal after Gukesh plays 22.Re4. Gukesh has an additional pawn on the board while Caruana has 50 additional second on his clock compared to his teenage opponent who has just nine minutes left. But at this juncture, Gukesh’s heart rate is 74 BPM while Caruana’s heart rate is 122 BPM. At this stage, the Chess.com metrics show that Caruana has played his 21 moves with a 91.3 per cent accuracy compared to Gukesh’s 90.55 per cent. These are admirable numbers considering the complications that arrive with playing in freestyle chess, where you start with an unfamiliar opening position and then have just your instinct to guide you from the first move itself.
When the first game of the quarter-final enters the tricky end game phase, both players have around nine minutes on their clocks. The position on the board — as per the engine — is level. But Gukesh’s heart rate is 74 BPM, while Caruana is at 122 BPM.
Heart rate data from the Gukesh vs Fabiano Caruana quarter-final. (Screengrab: YouTube/Chess.com)
There is a flurry of activity in the end game. Pieces get traded, Gukesh’s king is put under duress. It’s here that with a pawn push, Gukesh hands Caruana an advantage, which the American will go on to convert to victory. After that pawn blunder, Caruana is very evidently winning.
Later on in this game the world champion is in a completely losing position while he and Caruana’s pawns are in a race to promote — a race which the American’s pawn is certain to win. Gukesh, with just 30 seconds on his clock, has two additional pawns and a bishop, but Caruana has a minute on his clock and a rook on the board. It’s the climax of an edge-of-the-seat thriller. Caruana, who has smelt victory many moves before this, has a heart rate of 120. Gukesh has no chance to salvage the game. And yet, his heart rate at this stage is 64 beats per minute.

Caruana impressed Gukesh
Caruana is impressed when told about Gukesh’s heart rate afterwards. “That’s impressive. Of course you can see that like me he also gets nervous. But his heart rate doesn’t elevate,” Caruana added.
Gukesh’s ability to keep his heart rate sedated under pressure is not a surprise for Arjun Erigaisi, another member of India’s golden generation. Erigaisi says that in 2022 the Tata Steel Rapid and Blitz Tournament had also experimented with monitoring heart rate data of players. Gukesh and he were the ones who seemed to have the lowest heart rates in games.
Unlike Gukesh, the other competitors have relatively higher heart rates.Story continues below this ad
In a game between Alireza Firouzja and Vincent Keymer at Weissenhaus, when time comes for Firouzja to resign, his heart rate is 113 while Keymer’s is at 117. Around the handshake, the Frenchman’s heart rate spikes to 120 BPM while the German’s hits 128 BPM. The game between Hikaru Nakamura and Javokhir Sindarov sees their heart rates spike to over 120 BPM as well for most of the end game. Nakamura’s time trickles down to just 36 seconds, while his young opponent Sindarov has 1:37 minutes, the American’s heart rate is at 130, while Sindarov’s is at 148.
Dr Aashish Contractor, Director of Rehabilitation and Sports Medicine at Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital, said that when there is more at stake it is natural for the heart rate to increase.
“If you’re doing an activity which causes excitement, the heart rate should go up. If you get incredibly good or bad news, your heart rate will go up because you are releasing certain chemicals. It’s called activating your sympathetic nervous system. So when you’re playing a high-stakes match, it would be normal for the heart rate to rise. But if Gukesh’s heart rate didn’t flinch, it simply shows that he is an athlete who is abnormally calm under pressure. If his opponent’s heart rate went up to 130, that actually makes sense,” Contractor, one of India’s foremost sports cardiologs, said.
The average resting heart rate for most people is 60 to 80 BPM, but high-performance athletes tend to be on the lower side of that, around 50 and 60, Contractor said.Story continues below this ad
Can you build that sort of abnormal calm training? After all, most chess players spend considerable time in the gym working on increasing their aerobic endurance and physical fitness.
“For a chess player, training for hours will give him great fitness or great mental acuity. The work in the gym might help a chess player maintain a low resting heart rate. But it won’t affect his heart rate so much in high-pressure situations. For this, he would have done activities like meditation or yoga, focus training, and mindfulness. These activities would carry a greater weight. Keeping his heart rate under control in such high-pressure situations has a lot to do with his innate nature and psychology,” Contractor said.