Paddy Upton impressed by Gukesh's maturity and humanness

Bengaluru: When Paddy Upton isn’t climbing Mount Everest without supplementary oxygen, diving to the depths of the oceans, surfing, or clocking in hundreds of miles on the road for fun, he helps good athletes accomplish great deeds.  

In 2011, he infused a sense of wholeness into the Indian team and helped them win the 50-over World Cup. Last year, he helped the Indian hockey team win a bronze at the Paris Olympics. On Thursday, his six-month-long effort to help a young man realise 'his truth' ended in a hug from the youngest-ever chess World Champion.

That was the first time Upton was meeting D Gukesh in person. Until then, Gukesh was but a face on the screen, and Upton was but a mental conditioning and strategic leadership coach. Now, they’re friends, ones who will remain entwined in history over 64 squares, Ding Liren and a World Championship final for the ages.   

The South African opened up to DH about his journey with Gukesh, and how this moment was no accident, but destiny. Excerpts... 

What is your coaching philosophy in general, and how did you bespoke it to cater to Gukesh?

The thing with Gukesh which made him remarkably easy to work with is his self-awareness. He is very introspective. I know players who aren’t as introspective and they come in their way of success. Gukesh was open, clear, coherent, optimistic and curious. With a client like that, you just need to ask the right questions and pose the right scenarios.

As for this Championship, he was a consummate professional. He was so thoroughly prepared in all things, from eating right to sleep to exercise, to his mind, to his relationships…. everything. He had it all down to a formula and he executed it for months. This victory, from where I am seeing it, comes as no surprise at all.

What we would typically do is, I would ask him to come to me with a couple of questions on anything, and we would discuss that at length for hours. My job is to help him find the answer to those questions. The thing with him was that he always had such intuitive and intense questions so in breaking those down, we eventually decoded how we would win the title too. 

What was your first impression of him when you started working with him?

I was put in touch with him through a sponsor of his around May. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to do it because I didn’t know a thing about chess, and also working with someone so young. After a couple of conversations, though, I knew I was talking to someone special so I had to work with him after that. 

What in your eyes sets Gukesh apart?

Maturity, top-notch self-awareness and so on but the real thing about him is that he’s a high-quality human being with outstanding values. He has a deep conscience, real ethics, real character and real humility. Great athletes can be great humans too, and Gukesh is that. Rahul (Dravid) is one of those people. Sport and the success which comes with it can be fleeting but a good person doesn’t just go away like that. 

Take that post-match press conference, for instance, he spoke about his opponents as if he had won for such a long time. Whenever anyone asked him about his feelings, he spoke of others, his team, his God, and his family. He barely touched on his own genius, and that wasn’t put on. That’s just him. He is a world-class athlete, but for me, Gukesh is a far greater human being. He’s the kind of man who should be a role model for generations to come. He’s special. 

Typically, you work with athletes, the kinds who use their bodies in sports, but chess isn’t in your wheelhouse so how did you manage?

Chess isn’t that different from cricket or hockey. The difference isn’t in the sport but in the personalities. You need to take them for who they are and mould programmes to help them, and not use a cookie-cutter. The thing with chess is that it’s purely mental. In a way, I suppose you could say, it’s easier for me because I am in the business of working with people and their minds, but it’s different for sure. 

Chess players have time working in their favour whereas cricketers or hockey players don’t. See, the thing is all athletes know what it is like to be correctly focussed, to be in the flow state. My job is to ensure I give them the tools to find focus and get into a flow state more often than not. Take Ding for example, he made one mistake because his brain drifted away and he lost the world title. 

That said, that mistake was forced by Gukesh. People don’t realise that he was fresh throughout the championship because of the processes we kept in place. He slept well, ate well and so on. Ding wasn’t doing so much. Also, Gukesh was pushing him even when a draw was inevitable so Ding was tired by the end of it and ended up making that mistake. That wasn’t an error. That was fatigue. 

Right, so how did you ensure Gukesh didn’t end up making the kind of mistake Ding eventually did?

Typically when an athlete makes a mistake, you need to know how best to manage your mind, not fall prey to all the things it’s telling you to do, you cannot chastise yourself because if you’re in that cycle you lose sight of the now. You have to recognise the mistake, extract a lesson from it and let the past go and you get right back to the board as it is. 

The same when you’re ahead of the game or in the tournament. A lot of people start thinking of the trophy or the way they will feel after winning because they’re on the cusp of it, and end up erring because some of your energy goes into thinking about the win. You can only win if all your energy is in the now, and that’s the difference between world championships and those who are there but can’t quite get there. 

As a professional athlete, you need to understand that there are no regrets. Win or lose, no regrets. The more you internalise that concept, the freer you become. That’s what Gukesh did.