'He was always up to the challenge.'
"He had messaged me that he was not happy after losing the 12th game. I just told him to focus on the game and moves and not think about winning. I told him to enjoy the game," Grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna tells Rediff.com about World Chess Champion D Gukesh.
Prasanna coached Gukesh for a long time. And Gukesh reached out to his chess guru after his loss in the 12th game.
Perhaps that comforting pep talk helped Gukesh. For he drew the next game and won the last game of the championship to bring home the world chess title.
Prasanna is perhaps the first Indian GM to have coached a World Chess Champion from India.
The shy Prasanna dismisses such notions.
"I have not thought like that. I am happy at Gukesh's success."
"I had mixed feelings on Gukesh's chances of becoming the champion. He always surprises me with his performance. He was always up to the challenge. The points that weighed against him were his experience and handling the pressure," Prasanna adds.
"At that level of chess, apart from the skill, handling pressure and emotion are important. The person who manages that will win."
When asked about Gukesh's future and the goals to achieve Prasanna says: "Everything he does at a young age. And he will continue to do."
It was in January 2019 that Gukesh told Prasanna that he wanted to become the youngest World Chess Champion, which he achieved on Thursday.
Even as a 11 year old, says Prasanna, Gukesh would be serious at chess coaching sessions. He would tell Prasanna not to reveal the solution to a chess problem until he worked on it.
But after the class, the serious Gukesh would become a playful kid.
Prasanna began coaching Gukesh in 2017 when he had an ELO rating of about 2,300.
And from the beginning he would ask about the route to become the world champ.
Most of the kids aged 11 would be full of chess tricks but Gukesh was more of a positional player.
Gukesh was a keen listener and was able to focus on complex positions. He was also a workaholic.
Prasanna has coached several players like GMs Leon Mendonca, International Master V S Rathnavel, Woman GM V Varshini, WIM K Priyanka and others.
Even at age 10, Gukesh was very mature and disciplined. He would get up early and complete his morning duties to avoid the fights for the bathroom, recalls Woman International Master (WIM) Sai Meera Ravi.
Sai Meera Ravi is the mother of WGM Rakshitta Ravi and used to take Gukesh for overseas tournaments.
Prasanna asked Gukesh to do meditation, breathing exercises and yoga to get emotional stability.
Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at venkatacharijagannathan@gmail.com
Feature Presentation: Aslam Hunani/Rediff.com
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