4 min readOsloJun 2, 2026 11:32 PM IST
In the past 18 months, the crown of world champion seems to be weighing heavy on D Gukesh’s head. There seems to be a constant target on the back of the youngest champion in history. The results have sagged, winning chances squandered.
Consequently, the cacophony of criticism has been deafening. Former world champions like Garry Kasparov, Magnus Carlsen, Vladimir Kramnik and Anatoly Karpov have offered unsparing comments about the boy who’s just turned 20.
If one wondered how all that has affected the young man, his coach is not too perturbed.
“I don’t think meeting the expectations of former world champions is his main goal as a professional chess player,” says Grzegorz Gajewski, the man who has been a constant corner man for Gukesh since 2023.
“I don’t think the comments affected him at all. They have the right to their opinions. It’s your responsibility as a professional chess player, especially of his calibre, to simply focus on your job.”
Since coming together in 2023, Gukesh and Gajewski have ridden the roller-coaster of fortune together. The partnership led to a Candidates win at their first attempt and then a history-making World Championship triumph. Then, the slump began.
Gajewski admits all’s not well with the Indian’s form.
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“Obviously, his classical results were very disappointing. Even if you look at his recent results from the rapid and blitz event of the Grand Chess Tour in Warsaw, they were not mind-blowing. People thought he was over-performing for a 17-year-old. After that, he’s been fairly under-performing. But it’s just a matter of time for him,” the Polish grandmaster adds.
Gajewski, who once helped Viswanathan Anand as a second in his World Championship battles, was introduced to the youngster by the five-time world champion to help improve Gukesh’s opening repertoire. Since then, his role in Gukesh’s career has evolved.
For the last few years, a challenge that both of them have tried to work on is time-management during games.
“We’ve done a lot of work that was focusing on elements that are somewhere between chess and psychology. The work never ends really. We’ve done a lot of work on the time management thing, but it’s a problem that can never be fully solved. It’s his (Gukesh’s) nature to think (calculate during games). So this is not something that can be just solved for good. It’s a constant challenge for him,” says Gajewski.
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Keep fighting
Ask him how Gukesh has improved in recent months, and Gajewski says: “For me, it’s mainly the resilience he’s shown. Because he had a couple of good games in Tata Steel (at the start of the year) and that was it. The rest of the tournament was bad. Then, Prague Masters was also bad. It’s not like he’s playing some great chess here at Norway Chess. He’s playing normal chess. It’s not his A game for sure.”
Gajewski says that while it’s easy to perform well when a player is at his A game, when a player is not there, the important thing is to maintain a level.
“Allow yourself to make mistakes, or to spoil even some winning positions, that he did here. The important thing is to get over every game and do your best in the next game.”
He does point out that there are moments when the decisions that Gukesh makes upsets him. But he makes peace with them.
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“Internally, I get angry but I always remind myself I’m not the one playing, these are not my results. It’s important for me not to be too emotionally engaged. I do my job, he does his job, and that’s it. Whatever decision he makes, he thinks it’s for the best.”
With the World title defence coming in six months’ time, Gajewski is hopeful that an improvement in form is just around the corner.
“There are many aspects in his play which have improved. And while these might not yet be reflected in the results, I think it’s just a matter of one good confidence boost that will allow him to show his full potential,” he adds.
