D Gukesh's steady heart-rate stands out in Freestyle Chess Weissenhaus event despite underwhelming campaign

D Gukesh has been having a forgettable time in the opening event of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour. Six days have passed since the event got underway at the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort located at Germany’s Baltic coast, and the reigning world champion is yet to collect a victory.

The 18-year-old has lost five games so far and drawn twice as many. That included back-to-back defeats against Fabiano Caruana in the quarter-finals, and more recently, in Game 2 of the rapid tie-breaks in the 5th-8th-place classification match against Hikaru Nakamura.

Either the teen chess star has suddenly lost his touch after beating Ding Liren in the FIDE World Championship in December and finishing runner-up at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament. Or he is taking his time to get used to the unpredictable format that is Freestyle Chess, where the arrangement of pieces behind the pawn are picked randomly and made known to the players 15 minutes before the start of a game.

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Gukesh, however, has been making heads turn in Weissenhaus, even if it’s not for his on board performances.

Gukesh’s steady heart rate takes Weissenhaus by surprise

Among the unique features of the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour are ‘Confession Booths’ – private areas where the player can freely express his feelings regarding the current state of the game — as well as heart-rate sensors. The latter measures the heart-rates of the players involved in a game and displays them on the screen in real time.

More often than not, it is an indicator of the mental state that the player is in and whether nerves are starting to get the better of him/her, especially towards the endgame when time is also running out on the clock.

When it comes to Gukesh, though, the heart-rate sensors hardly fluctuate even if he’s locked in a pitched battle, which was the case in Game 1 of the rapid tie-breaks with Nakamura in which the two played out a draw that lasted 103 moves!

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Gukesh's heart rate being 66 while Fabi's is over 100. The world champ is ICE COLD 🥶🥶 #FreestyleChess pic.twitter.com/J6ZPCyM5Rw

— Chess.com (@chesscom) February 9, 2025

Gukesh’s ability to maintain a cool head even in a dire situation was best highlighted in his quarter-final meeting with Caruana. The Italian-American Grandmaster had triumphed in 40 and 18 moves respectively in Game 1 and 2. In the first game however, Gukesh’s heart-rate monitor read 78 while Caruana’s was 124 – this despite the fact that the game was still on level terms.

Commentator David Howell would later tell Caruana that Gukesh’s heart-rate remained in the 60-70 range even when things got tight while his hovered between 100 and 120, to which the world No 4 replied, "

“His was around 70?” a shocked Caruana enquired. “That’s quite impressive… also, Magnus’s heart rate doesn’t elevate much.”

Gukesh had exhibited similar composure during his triumph over Ding in the World Championship showdown in Singapore in November-December. Gukesh, who is known for going into a meditative state during matches, had hired the services of mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton, who had previously worked with the Indian team during their triumph in the 2011 ICC World Cup.

Upton’s influence would certainly have helped Gukesh manage his nerves better during a game, even when facing some of the world’s best.