Paddy Upton reveals ‘one small adjustment’ that helped D Gukesh become chess world champion

Gukesh Dommaraju had capitalised on a blunder committed by Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren to win the FIDE World Championship in Singapore in December. In the process, the 18-year-old GM made history by becoming the youngest world champion in the sport’s history, and only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to achieve the feat.

Mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton, however, has revealed an additional factor that may have contributed to Gukesh’s 7.5-6.5 victory over Ding in the ‘Best of 14’ Classical game series.

Upton how change in AC temperature worked in Gukesh’s favour

According to Upton, who was part of Gukesh’s team in the World Championship, something as small as making a minor adjustment to the temperature of his hotel room’s air conditioner had an impact on his performance.

“One small adjustment made a difference. Gukesh mentioned he was taking longer than usual to fall asleep, leaving him a little less rested the next day," Upton wrote in a post on his website titled ‘The Winning Mindset’.

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“We revisited his 15-point sleep hygiene plan and found one area of improvement – reducing his hotel room’s temperature from 24 degrees C to 22 degrees C. This minor change worked and left his mind and body fresh for when it mattered the most," the South African added.

Gukesh had hired the services of Upton in October, a little over a month before the World Championship got underway.

Besides Upton and his trainer Grzegorz Gajewski, Gukesh’s team for the world championship comprised Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Pentala Harikrishna, Vincent Keymer, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Jan Klimkowski.

Gukesh also received inputs from the legendary Viswanathan Anand, who had become the first Indian to be crowned world champion when he defeated Spanish GM Alexey Shirov in 2000.

After enjoying a month-long break following his historic triumph in Singapore, Gukesh had returned to action at the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, where he finished runner-up for the second year running after losing to compatriot R Praggnanandhaa in tie-breaks.

Gukesh would then participate in the opening event of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour in Weissenhaus, Germany, where he finished eighth out of 10 participants. He will next be seen in action in the Paris leg of the Tour.