Gukesh speaks: Proved whatever needed to be proved in 2024… focus now is on improving, not proving myself

Becoming the youngest world champion in chess history almost put a target on 18-year-old Gukesh's back. While opponents have been hungry to defeat him, the world started to track his results, every draw and each defeat being used to weigh — rather unfairly — his worth as a world champion.
Right after becoming the world champion in Singapore, the teenager from Chennai almost won the Tata Steel Chess tournament in Wijk aan Zee, before being thwarted by Arjun Erigaisi and Praggnanandhaa in the end. Since then, Gukesh has experienced an uncharacteristic slump: he went through the Weissenhaus leg of the Freestyle Chess tournament without a win, before experiencing more woe in the Paris leg of the Freestyle event. And then, his results in freestyle started to poison his form in classical chess as well: at the recent Superbet Classic Romania event, Gukesh won just a single game out of nine (against Levon Aronian) while losing to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Alireza Firouzja and drawing with the six remaining opponents.
Gukesh will experience another stern test in classical chess from Monday as he competes at Norway Chess, which will have a stacked field comprising of world no 1 Magnus Carlsen, world no 2 Hikaru Nakamura, no 4 Arjun Erigaisi, no 5 Fabiano Caruana and world no 8 Wei Yi.
After his recent results, does he feel like Norway Chess is the platform for him to prove a point to his detractors?
'Last year (2024) in classical chess, I played tournaments where I kind of proved whatever needed to be proved. And right now the focus is not about proving it. The world championship is not where I want to stop, I want to go beyond that. So it's not about proving, but improving myself and going beyond where I am,' Gukesh told Norway Chess in an interview on Saturday evening before the start of the event in Stavanger.
The Norway Chess event sees Gukesh face off against former world champion Magnus Carlsen for the first since the Indian's coronation on the throne previously occupied by the Norwegian for 10 years between 2013 and 2023. Gukesh has never beaten Carlsen in classical chess, with the Norwegian defeating Gukesh at the FIDE World Cup in 2023.
'It will be a very interesting game and a fun challenge. In 2024 we didn't face off in classical at all. For the spectators, it's great to see the world champion face the number one player in the world. It's something that sounds exciting. It's surely something I'm very happy to give myself and to chess fans. I hope it will be a treat,' Gukesh said.
Gukesh admitted that the expectations from the world of him have been at 'another level' since he became world champion. But he said those expectations did not perturb him. 'The extra expectations or the pressure came in with the world championship title. But expectations have always been there since a very young age, around 12 when I became a grandmaster. This is a new level. But I see it as a challenge to prove to myself that I can handle this. Even though the expectations are high, I can meet them if I keep working hard and doing my best.'
When Gukesh was asked what was the 'hardest adjustment' to make from being just a chess prodigy to now being an elite player, he replied: 'The toughest challenge is that you cannot have weak movements. In the lower level, if you have a bit of an inconsistency when you play the opposition is not that strong. But now if you have weak movements in the tournaments that I'm playing these days, you get punished literally every time. So it's about being consistent every day, giving your 100 percent. If you don't, because of the level… I mean, the difference between players at the elite level is basically very, very small. Everybody is capable of beating each other at any given time. So I think the biggest challenge is being consistent, giving your 100 percent every single day.'
Amit Kamath is Assistant Editor at The Indian Express and is based in Mumbai. ... Read More

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