World Champion Gukesh's mental health: How yoga, meditation, sports books helped him

D Gukesh's historic win at the FIDE World Chess Championship 2024, defeating the former champion Ding Liren is the talk of the town.
Many factors helped Gukesh break Garry Kasparov's record to become the youngest-ever world chess champion, one of which is his mental preparedness. South African-born cricket coach and mental conditioning expert Paddy Upton was part of Gukesh's team. This was the first time a player brought such a coach along to the championship.

Once Gukesh qualified for the championship, one of the things his team looked around for was a mental coach. In an interview, Paddy said, "I have been talking to him once a week for the past six months, just preparing him on various possible ways to manage his mind. It's a big event for an 18-year-old. How can he manage his mind to stay focussed on making one move at a time at the chessboard for 14 games in a row." Paddy said that players think they should do something extraordinary during such tournaments. "That's a big mistake. What they need to be doing is what they do well and consistently."

Daily yoga and meditation
In various interviews, Gukesh and his previous coaches have also mentioned that yoga is part of his daily routine. The player can also be seen engaging in a few moments of meditation, even before and during his matches. One of his previous coaches, Prasanna, also revealed in an interview that he used to advise Gukesh to do breathing exercises, yoga and meditation to attain emotional stability. Apparently, he also depends on yoga to not get burned out and to handle pressure. Various other chess players like Vidit Gujrathi have also revealed how they employ 'goal-based meditation' and breathing techniques in matches to focus on their game. 

Books for fitness and mental health
In an interview on a YouTube channel a few months ago, Gukesh revealed that Novak Djokovic's 'Serve to Win,' a gluten-free fitness plan, is a book that he has read. He also mentioned Abhinav Bindra's 'A Shot to History' as one of his favourite books. The young champion also has autobiographies of Pete Sampras, Sachin Tendulkar, Andre Agassi, Rafael Nadal and others as part of his motivational collection. As for books on chess, he mentioned 'Under the Surface' by Jan Markos and 'Practical Chess Beauty' by Yochanan Afek as his favourites.