Chess world champion D Gukesh opened up recently about a childhood incident when his dedication to the sport had him playing from 10 am in the morning to 11 pm at night. “I remember once instance in my first academy where I went to my trainer’s house at around like 10 am in the morning and then I returned home around 11 pm,” Gukesh said in a iQOO India YouTube video.
It was not surprising that his mother was less than happy about it. “I mean that time, I was just obsessed with chess. I didn’t really care about anything else. So, it happened and then I remember when I came back home and I was standing outside the gate, my mom was like, “if you do this again, I won’t let you inside. Yeah, my mom, one of the things she shouts at me is that I don’t eat on time or sleep on time because I used to always work on chess,” Gukesh added.
The 19-year-old then said that as he grew up, he understood how to manage his time so that he did not get burned out.
“Obviously with age, some maturity came. I understood the concept of smart work and not overpushing myself. But at that time, at that age it didn’t really matter. But after I got to a certain level, I got older, I learned to like manage stuff, not to you know risk burning out.
Gukesh at Sinquefield Cup
Gukesh is currently participating in the Sinquefield Cup and on Saturday, survived anxious moments before splitting the point with Duda Jan-Krzysztof in the 5th round.
Gukesh had another eventful game in a Queen pawn opening with black pieces. After equalizing easily, the Indian went for his trademark complications but they almost backfired as Duda found some wily manoeuvres leading to a clearly better position according to the computer.
However, a mistake in the middle game cost the Polish Grandmaster dearly as Gukesh was able to neutralise white’s initiative and eventually shared the point through repetition. The game lasted 45 moves.
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