 "D Gukesh's trainer Grzegorz Gajewski heaps praise on Indian GM's level of awareness, reveals strategy to beat Ding Liren")
D Gukesh fulfilled his lifelong dream of becoming the chess world champion after defeating China’s Ding Liren in the 2024 FIDE World Chess Championship in Singapore with a 7.5-6.5 scoreline. The 18-year-old’s dream finally came true after he defeated Ding in 58 moves in Game 14 , the final game in the Classical format, on Thursday, becoming only the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand as well as the youngest ever to be crowned world champion.
Polish GM Grzegorz Gajewski, Gukesh’s trainer for the past two years as well as his second, later revealed that the Indian Grandmaster was looking at areas of improvement on the day he defeated Ding to become the 18th chess world champion.
“He is open-minded and is willing to work and improve. He has absolutely no problems in admitting what he has done wrong. Instead of arguing, he focuses on how he can improve.
“Believe it or not, even yesterday (Thursday), he spoke about the things that he could improve upon. That is the level of awareness he has and it is something I have not seen in my life,” Gajewski told The Times of India after Gukesh’s victory in Singapore.
Gajewski also spoke on the strategy to counter Ding in the World Championship, revealing that the plan was to “exhaust” the Chinese GM as much as possible. That was the plan in Game 14 on Thursday, in which Gukesh fought on and dragged the game past the 50th move, rejecting offers for a draw along the way.
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More Shorts“Ding was a bit of a mystery coming into this match…During the match, every day, we were learning new things about him — the way he plays, also the way he feels and evaluates positions.
“Actually, quite quickly, we came up with this idea that it’s best to make Ding play for as long as possible, every single game, ideally six hours, just to exhaust him. We assumed that in the long run, this strategy just has to pay off. It eventually did,” Gajewski told Hindustan Times.
The 39-year-old, who had been awarded the status of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2006, was part of Gukesh’s team that also comprised Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Pentala Harikrishna, Vincent Keymer, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Jan Klimkowski.
Also Read | How D Gukesh's father shaped Indian GM's chess journey
Gukesh had also hired the services of mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton , who had worked with the Indian men’s team during their triumph in the 2011 ICC World Cup as well as the the Indian men’s hockey team that won bronze in the Paris Olympics earlier this year. Gukesh had also been receiving inputs from Indian legend Anand, who has been his mentor ever since he joined
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