Gukesh perhaps has a fair bit weighing on his mind. Beneath the dark pinstripe suit sits a 20-year-old grappling with expectations and pressures that few of his peers can imagine.
He has just finished at the bottom of the Norway Chess standings and is navigating a trough at a time when the stakes could hardly be higher. In six months, he will have to show up to defend his World Championship title.
In a strikingly vulnerable chat, the world champion opened up about his struggle with motivation last year, finding it a challenge to enjoy chess and why most chess players are “lucky” never to become world champions.
Excerpts:
What’s been the hardest part of being a world champion?
Managing expectations. As much as you try to switch off from the outside world, you’re still aware that there is this elephant in the room – of expectations from you and also you expect something from yourself. In general, I’m an ambitious player and I keep going for wins. Considering these things, it has been pretty hard but okay, it’s a challenge. I either break from it or grow through it. Right now, it is not looking great.. Let’s see..
You are an ambitious player. You can sometimes push too much in games and play yourself into trouble…
Since a young age, I’ve been playing a lot of opens and to win opens you need to be tricky, you need to start winning a lot of games. It’s just the way I was brought up. It’s who I am. Sometimes it’s okay but in chess you have to be objective. You need to give in to the demands of the position and sometimes when you want the result too much, it gets in the way of your objectivity and that’s what’s been happening. I lost so many games which I should have just played and saved. So yeah, it’s something related to self-control and managing expectations. All these are very minor things, but that’s what makes the difference at the top, because everybody plays at a very high level. There’s no excuse for not being objective. It’s the job of a professional to do that and I’ve not been doing so there’s no excuse for that. It’s just that I need to manage myself better.
What do you mean by managing yourself better?
To be more disciplined on the board and manage my ambitions better, because being ambitious is good as long as you control it. Lately my strengths have been controlling me, which is understandable because it’s a new phase for me. It’s not a phase that a lot of 19-20-year-olds go through. So, I think I can cut myself a bit of slack. But yeah, if I want to grow, I need to do some hard things, right?
What are these hard things…
Being serious about the process but relaxed around the results, make peace with whatever has happened. I’ll try my best going further. Trying my best means being ambitious but not letting it control my decisions.
Until a week or so ago you were a teen, did you tell yourself at any point, ‘it’s fine, I’m still a teen’
I think whenever you tell something like that, you’re tricking yourself because you know that this means a lot. If you tell yourself, ‘okay, it’s fine’ you’re not tricking yourself anymore. The truth is I care. I do get affected, but I need to be performing despite of all that. I’m not using age as an excuse. It’s normal. But I want to do something more to strive for greatness. I can understand these problems better. But it doesn’t mean it’s fine.
Your World Championship challenger Javokhir Sindarov is a massive Counter-Strike junkie. Is there anything of outside chess that you like to immerse yourself in?
My friends are a big part of my life. When I talk to my friends while I’m at home or at tournaments, I feel great. They are a huge part of my life. They are not chess players, but chess-related friends – people who I’ve met along this journey. Also, childhood friends. Other than talking to my friends, I like listening to music. Everybody has their own thing I suppose. Counter-strike is an interesting example.
Was it weird seeing Javokhir (who was accompanying Bibisara) in Oslo for Norway Chess? Was it a reminder of the match?
I think for the World Championship, you don’t need a reminder. It’s always there in the back of your mind. Him being here was kind of funny to me. It’s nice though that they’re (Bibisara and Javokhir) having a good time.
What is the sort of work that you’re putting into the mental aspect?
I’m still working with Paddy (Upton). I’m very happy with where I am compared to a couple of months back but it’s clear I still have a long way to be at my peak. All I can do is improve. I always feel like improvement happens before results happen. If I genuinely believe improvement is happening, then the results will catch up. For anybody, becoming a world champion is such a huge drive that most people are lucky not to achieve it. They constantly have something to push themselves. After that happens, you need to find something else that drives you, right? It is a new phase. It is not like I am sitting on the couch and that’s why my results are… I am still putting a lot of work. They are very minute things which I have to think about and I’ve been thinking a lot. One of the instances I remember was after the Indian cricket team won the 2011 World Cup, they had this streak of results going into the next couple of years where they were doing pretty badly.
You spoke of most players having the World Championship to push them. You already achieved it at 18. Has it been difficult to find a new goal to chase?
Yeah, for sure. You can do all the work, you can do everything that you’ve been doing but the reason why you are doing it is different. You are not striving for the World Championship. You’re already there. It doesn’t mean you have to lose motivation. There were obviously some parts in 2025 when there were some motivation issues. If you really love the sport, if you’re able to connect back to it why you started playing the sport…I feel external results can never be a reliable source of motivation for a very long time. Something that drives you from within, that’s what I’ve been trying to connect with.
What do you enjoy most about chess right now?
Right now, it’s a challenge. I can’t say I’m fully there. I’m focusing on just having fun, waking up every day and trying to learn something new about chess…Because I simply don’t know anything else that I want to spend my whole day with. Even though I’m playing badly and it’s frustrating, chess is still something that I want to spend time with. To do something badly for a long time…If you don’t have any kind of love for the game, there’s no reason to continue. Just the fact that I’m trying so hard, means that there is something behind all of this. Just connecting with it, I think is the reason that I want to keep going.