Paddy Upton: Gukesh’s self-awareness beyond his years, has same quality as Kallis

With the World Chess Championship fast approaching, India’s D. Gukesh and China’s Ding Liren are deep in preparation for the ultimate title in chess. Gukesh, buoyed by standout performances on the global stage, has seen a rise in fortunes, while Ding has been a shadow of his past, dealing with mental health challenges that have affected his form.

Although this could skew the scales in Gukesh’s favour, the 18-year-old has taken a lesson from Ding’s challenges, enlisting renowned mental conditioning coach Paddy Upton to strengthen his mental game for the upcoming showdown.

Upton, a significant figure in the sports world, has a decorated resume: he was instrumental in India’s victorious campaign at the 2011 Cricket World Cup and contributed to the Indian National Hockey Team’s bronze-medal run at the Paris 2024 Olympics. His experience spans a range of elite athletes, including PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen, along with coaching roles for the Rajasthan Royals in the Indian Premier League (IPL), as well as in the Big Bash League and Pakistan Super League.

In an exclusive conversation with Sportstar, Upton shares insights on his role with Gukesh, the strategies he’s using to prepare the young prodigy, the unique mental demands of chess, and how his work with Gukesh compares to his other roles.

Excerpts:

Q. How did you get in touch with Gukesh and his team? Who contacted you, and how long have you been working with him?

A. The initial contact came through Sandeep Singhal of WestBridge Capital. They have a chess academy along with Vishy (Viswanathan) Anand. Sandeep reached out to me about five months ago, and we discussed working with Gukesh as he was preparing for the World Championship.

What’s been your observation of Gukesh, especially given his monk-like personality during tournaments? His ability to cut himself off from the outside world is quite remarkable for his age.

I’ve been very impressed with his maturity and his thinking, specifically in his self-awareness of what he’s thinking about, and what’s going on for him. He definitely has a self-awareness that is beyond his years. Obviously, he’s a chess genius. But he’s got an amazing self-awareness and ability to self-regulate.

A lot of chess players, I imagine, are naturally quite introverted and his personality is almost like Jacques Kallis’. Kallis could stay in his own bubble, unaffected by what was happening around him, and Gukesh has that same quality. But what’s special about Gukesh is that big moments really seem to bring out his best. In sports, we often talk about “big-match temperament,” where high-stakes situations bring out peak performance.

You have guys like Virat Kohli who have that ability to really deliver in a World Cup final exactly like he did earlier this year. He had a very average tournament but then when the final came, you can look to someone like him and the way he steps up. I think back to the 2011 World Cup, when (M.S.) Dhoni and (Gautam) Gambhir were the two players — someone who steps up when the pressure is highest. For Gukesh, these big moments in chess seem to have a similar effect, pushing him to perform at his peak. His performances in the Olympiad and the Candidates show that, when the stakes are high, he finds his best form.

Is it true that you were a bit apprehensive about working with a youngster initially?

I was only hesitant because I don’t know anything about chess and secondly, I tend not to take on people who are too young just because of their emotional maturity, their mental maturity, and their ability to self-reflect and have self-awareness. My work requires people to have fairly good levels of self-awareness of their own thinking and their emotions. So I’m just cautious before rushing in to take on someone too young for that reason. But early on in the first conversation with Gukesh, I realised his levels of self-awareness and ability to introspect are way beyond his years.

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After working with professionals across various sports with a strong physical component, such as rugby, cricket, and hockey, what is it like working in a sport like chess that requires mostly mental endurance? Does your process change depending on the sport?

At a high level, the mental demands are similar across sports; athletes in all sports need to maintain focus, resilience, and self-regulation in high-pressure moments. But each sport also has unique demands. For example, a midfielder in football processes a lot of external information about players around them, while a golfer’s focus is almost entirely internal, relying on body awareness and their own mindset to make a shot. In chess, the mental side is still incredibly important too.

You can’t really rely too much on speed and stamina and strengthening physicality to be able to dominate your opponent. That said, sitting down for 3-4 up to seven hours per day. And once you start getting to the 12th, 13th or 14th game, no doubt there will be some physical exhaustion will have happened on the body. So Gukesh is working on his physical fitness to be able to stay physically strong sitting in that position. So towards the end of a tournament, he’s not having to deal with physical exhaustion, which would happen when you go through something for that long.

Gukesh enjoys trying new activities. He’s mentioned tennis, pickleball, and paddle. Do your discussions focus strictly on chess, or do you cover other aspects of his life as well?

We discuss many aspects of his life outside chess because it’s important for his overall well-being. I take a holistic approach, looking at the whole person, so understanding his lifestyle, family dynamics, social interactions, and hobbies is part of the process. Having interests outside of chess, like other sports, can offer him the necessary mental refresh. When we talk, we cover both his life outside of chess and his approach to the game. That way, we create a balance that allows him to perform his best without getting mentally exhausted. We also work on his thought process during matches—how he approaches different phases of a game, what he’s thinking when he’s ahead or behind, and how he prepares for the next game after a win or loss. It’s especially crucial to address the mindset he needs to recover quickly from setbacks, such as losing from a strong position, and to keep his focus intact for the following rounds.

What does a typical session with Gukesh look like? Are there specific activities you do with him, aside from mental training sessions?

All our sessions are virtual, usually on Zoom, and we speak for an hour, hour and a half probably, at least, weekly, if not more regularly for the last five months. Our sessions are conversational rather than prescriptive, focusing on helping him understand and manage his thoughts, emotions, and life in a way that best prepares him for tournaments. I might give him an activity or exercise to try on his own, but much of it is centred around discussion and reflection. It’s about getting him mentally ready to compete and knowing when to step back. Just like a physically demanding sport, the mental side also requires breaks and recovery. Constant focus can lead to mental fatigue, so we emphasise the importance of downtime and “mental recovery” to avoid burnout. Just as an athlete wouldn’t spend hours in the gym every day before a big event, chess players need time away to reset mentally. We talk about strategies for mental refreshment and how to prepare for a long tournament without exhausting his mental resources.

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Speaking only from an Indian perspective: You’ve been associated with the high-profile Indian cricket team, the national hockey setup, and Rajasthan Royals. If you had to distinguish your role in those environments from your work with Gukesh, what would it be?

Each role has been distinct. With Rajasthan Royals, for instance, I was more immersed because I knew the sport well and even served as head coach. My involvement extended deeply into the tactical and strategic aspects of the game. In contrast, with Gukesh, I am not involved at all in his game tactics; my role is focused solely on the mental side. My work with athletes like PV Sindhu and Lakshya Sen is more similar to my role with Gukesh since I didn’t know much about their sports either, yet worked with them on mental conditioning. With the hockey team, I was there in person, travelling and interacting formally and informally. Those informal moments, like having coffee or breakfast, led to meaningful conversations and insights, which was a unique part of being there physically. With Gukesh, although our sessions are virtual, we’ve worked together long enough that our conversations are now relaxed, informal, and candid.

Ding Liren has faced mental challenges. How important do you think mental stability is in chess to stay a step ahead of your opponent?

I can only speak generically here. That was any athlete going into a big event, whether it was a hockey team going to Olympic qualifiers, or a cricket team going to the World Cup. You need to have a decent understanding of your opponent’s strengths and weaknesses. You need to have a very good understanding of your own strengths and weaknesses. And then you need to come up with strategies that still play to your own predictable strengths because those are your strengths and then potentially have one or two things up your sleeve that might take the opponent by surprise. And that is just stock standard smart thinking going into any big event. Know yourself, know your opponent, and play to what you’re really good at and have some things that your opponent hasn’t necessarily to surprise them.