The champion always walks away with the accolades but the role of the team or seconds, in chess parlance, are of huge importance.
Dommaraju Gukesh had a team of super chess brains working behind the scenes to provide a competitive edge to the new world champion.
Grandmasters Grzegorz Gajewski, Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Jan-Krzyszt of Duda and International Master Jan Klimkowski (all Polish), Indian GM Pentala Harikrishna and Vincent Keymer (German) were spending sleepless nights working on openings and strategies. Paddy Upton, the South African mental conditioning coach, worked with Gukesh for six months. Chess maestro Viswanathan Anand also joined in a couple of sessions, as revealed by the 18-year-old on Thursday.
“They are the men who work tirelessly behind the scenes. What opening will the player choose, and how to catch the opponent and his team off-guard. Hours of brain-storming, pouring over data sheets. It’s complete madness,” Surya Sekhar Ganguly told The Telegraph minutes after touching down in the city on Friday night. The Grandmaster was playing in the Qatar Masters in Doha.
“In the Soviet Union era, chess was different. They were dominating the chess scene so the seconds also were from the USSR. Now it’s a changed scenario. Everyone knows everyone’s move because of technology. In this changed scenario, surprising the rival is a tough job. That’s where seconds play a very important role,” he added.
Gukesh has been working with Gajewski for the past two years. Harikrishna has been with him from the Candidates to the World Chess Championship final journey. Gukesh won the Candidates in April to set up the final clash with just-ousted world champion Ding Liren of China.
Surya would know how tirelessly the seconds work first-hand, as he was a part of Anand’s team for the three World Championship matches the 55-year-old played in 2008, 2010 and 2012.
“I do not know why Anand chose me as a second in 2007. I was like an illiterate in that team when I first went there. But soon I got a hang of things. Anand being Anand, might have seen something in me which even I was not aware of,” Surya, who is now a reputed trainer and workswith Grandmaster Vidit Gujrathi, said.
“Those days there used to be a rest day after every two games. So the night before the rest day we used to sleep for 8-9 hours. Otherwise even getting a four-hour sleep was seen as a lucky break.”
On Thursday, Surya had just finished his last-round match in Doha when he was told about Gukesh’s feat. “I rushed to the commentary box and saw him crying on the screen. That was the first time even tears made me happy. That’s what I told him too.”
