Premium

When Gukesh was scolded by his mother for playing chess for nearly 13 hours straight

The 19-year-old then said that as he grew up, he understood how to manage his time so that he did not get burned out.

World champion Gukesh competes in the Freestyle Chess Grand Slam Tour event in Weissenhaus. (PHOTO: Lennart Ootes via Freestyle Chess)

Chess world champion Gukesh Dommaraju recently opened up about a childhood incident when his dedication to the sport had him playing from 10 am in the morning to 11 pm at night — and earned him a earful from his mother. “I remember one instance in my first academy where I went to my trainer’s house at around like 10 am in the morning and then I returned home around 11 pm,” Gukesh said in a iQOO India, The Quest Talk podcast.

It was not surprising that his mother was less than happy about it. “I mean that time, I was just obsessed with chess. I didn’t really care about anything else. So, it happened and then I remember when I came back home and I was standing outside the gate, my mom was like, “if you do this again, I won’t let you inside. Yeah, my mom, one of the things she shouts at me is that I don’t eat on time or sleep on time because I used to always work on chess,” Gukesh added.

The 19-year-old then said that as he grew up, he understood how to manage his time so that he did not get burned out.

Story continues below this ad

“Obviously with age, some maturity came. I understood the concept of smart work and not over-pushing myself. But at that time, at that age it didn’t really matter. But after I got to a certain level, I got older, I learned to like manage stuff, not to you know risk burning out.

Obviously with age, some maturity came. I understood the concept of smart work and not over-pushing myself

CHESS PUZZLE | Can you think like Magnus Carlsen? Find move that made his opponent Karjakin resign in 2 seconds and concede 2016 world championship

Gukesh’s results at Sinquefield Cup

Gukesh is currently participating in the Sinquefield Cup and on Saturday, survived anxious moments before splitting the point with Duda Jan-Krzysztof in the 5th round.

Gukesh had another eventful game in a Queen pawn opening with black pieces. After equalizing easily, the Indian went for his trademark complications but they almost backfired as Duda found some wily manoeuvres leading to a clearly better position according to the computer.

However, a mistake in the middle game cost the Polish Grandmaster dearly as Gukesh was able to neutralise white’s initiative and eventually shared the point through repetition. The game lasted 45 moves.