Chess world champion Gukesh Dommaraju explains how meditation transformed him into a world champion at the age of 18

Time of India

3 days ago

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In 2024, Gukesh Dommaraju became the youngest world champion of chess. Now the 19-year-old from Chennai has opened up on how meditation turned him from an "impulsive and short-tempered kid" to a calm, record-making world champion.
Gukesh is appreciated and admired for his poise and ability to stay focused and unmoved even in most high-profile matches, never showing a crack in his façade. He credited this transformation to when he realised his inability to manage his emotions, which was bleeding into his chess results.
Recently, he was in Poland's Katowice to play an exhibition blitz event against Jan-Krzysztof Duda. The chess player lost 5-1 to Duda, who was a part of his team last year when he became the youngest world champion in chess history.
Answering some questions at the event, he revealed how meditation and yoga helped him manage his emotions. 'I was always like a very impulsive, very short-tempered kid. I used to throw tantrums and like not manage my emotions. Then I realized that it's affecting my chess because whenever I would lose a game, the next few games too I would be very affected by it and I would not be able to play well. So I just realized that I should manage my emotions better.
That's when I started doing some good practices like meditation and yoga, which really helped me to manage my emotions. It not only helps in chess but like all walks of life,' he said.
When asked about his favourite asana, he shared that he just did some basic yoga positions. 'I can't say like I'm like that advanced in yoga or something like that. But like I just do very simple and basic movement while focusing on breathing.
Most of it is related to meditation. I don't really know much about yoga. I just know some basics, and I do that at work.'
When asked by the host to show the crows some yoga techniques, he said, 'I'm not really a yoga master.'
What lies ahead for Gukesh?
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The chess champion will be heading to the USA from Poland to play in the St Louis Rapid and Blitz tournament, which is a part of the Grand Chess Tour events. He also added that he has plenty of dreams he wishes to conquer after achieving the goal of becoming the 18th world champion in chess history by defeating Ding Liren in Singapore in 2024.
Now, he shared that he wishes to become the best player in the world.
'My childhood dream was to become the world champion. But at some point it became just be the best player. The youngest and all these things didn't really matter too much to me. It was about being the best and keep improving throughout my life to achieve that. To be the one player in the whole world who is like the best player, who you could clearly say that this is the best player in the world. That has become my dream. It's still a long way to go.
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