World Chess Championship 2024: Round 11 could have easily gone the other way as well, admits Gukesh

World Chess Championship 2024: Round 11 could have easily gone the other way as well, admits Gukesh

India’s D Gukesh experienced a roller-coaster of emotions during his 11th-round win in the World Chess Championship final against China’s Ding Liren on Sunday in Singapore.

After starting strongly, in a Reti Opening game, Gukesh ceded his time advantage by wasting more than an hour on his 11th move. But, surprising everyone, Ding blundered on his 28th move to gift the game to his rival.

“During the game, I lost my cool at some point, because I achieved exactly what I wanted out of the opening and then I just went crazy for some time. After that, I realized I was not losing and I realized I had some chances and then suddenly won the game,” said Gukesh after the game.

“We thought we had good odds of outpreparing him, and my team did some amazing work in this line. I looked at the line; I felt it was very interesting, and the risk-reward ratio was quite nice because I would surprise him for sure,” he added.

The Indian Grand Master admitted the high-variability nature of the game which saw him claim the championship lead for the first time in the final.

“This game could have easily gone the other way as well, so considering that, it’s a very important game, but there are still three more very important games to go.”

Gukesh also threw light onto the role played by mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton in his world championship bid.

“Working with Paddy has been super enjoyable and an instructive for me and considering the height of the World Championship, there are more emotional struggles than any other tournament. We have had a lot of conversations. I learned a lot.

He said a lot of things that has helped me in many of the games. Because Whenever you lose, you also lose your focus or you’ll get emotional but you should come back to the game and play the best move. And it’s not always easy to do, so his teachings have really helped me a lot,” added Gukesh.