World champion Gukesh D’s form since he became the youngest man in history at the age of 18 to ascend to the throne last year in December has become a talking point in the sport. At the ongoing FIDE World Cup, he was eliminated in the third round after losing to Germany’s Frederik Svane. The now-19-year-old is also yet to win a tournament after becoming the 18th world champion in the history of chess last year.
But is that a reason for worry in Gukesh’s run of results? India’s first individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra does not think so. Bindra is best suited among Indian athletes to talk about success triggering a crisis in an athlete. At the age of 25, immediately after he won the Olympic gold at Beijing 2008—which had been the singular pursuit he had dedicated his life towards for 15 years at that stage—Bindra experienced a void.
It must be noted that Bindra’s and Gukesh’s cases might be different. The shooter in fact was so affected by winning gold that he wanted to quit the sport altogether and then went to a lengthy silent retreat. Gukesh, on the other hand, has dived right into chess tournaments, playing a lot more events and experimenting with tournaments in other formats than his preferred classical chess, like Freestyle Chess.
WATCH: Abhinav Bindra on Gukesh
But when asked what he thought about Gukesh’s run of results, Bindra said: “I have to start with a disclaimer, I haven’t spoken to him. If I say something, it might be completely irrelevant to him. I don’t know what’s going on in his mind. But I think it is very normal for athletes to—after having massive success—to have a period of motivation loss or just a quiet period. It is just normal. It is just the same in every athlete’s case. I think the most important thing is to just go back to your basics, to go back to your foundation, to go back to the drawing board.”
India’s first individual gold medallist, Abhinav Bindra, makes the ceremonial first move in the FIDE World Cup final in Goa. (PHOTO: Michal Walusza)
Bindra was at the FIDE World Cup to make the ceremonial first move for the Chess World Cup final between China’s Wei Yi and Uzbekistan’s Javokhir Sindarov.
Elaborating on the mental block that athletes might experience after achieving their life’s goal, Bindra said: “You’ve reached the mountain and climbed this peak. And human nature really is that we want to jump to the next peak. But you simply can’t jump to the next peak. You have to climb that peak down and then step by step plug the gaps that have come, cropped in and then work on the foundation and go back again. The only advice that I would really like to give (Gukesh) is all of this requires an immense amount of energy. And sometimes, after having achieved such high success, you are a little bit drained. An individual is human to be drained, not just physically, mentally, emotionally.
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“It sometimes just takes a little while to really get your batteries completely recharged and full so that you can start thinking really clearly of what your next goal is or what you want to do next is. And that really helps you get through it. Because again, the reality in sport, for an athlete, the unfortunate reality in sport is that yesterday never counts. You are only as good as what you are on that particular day. You win and then the very next day the world is asking for more proof: If you are good enough, good enough to what you were yesterday, good enough to what will you be up to the next challenger.
“But that is what we have to face and that is what every athlete has to undergo. But I think as long as you continue to find joy in what you are doing and keep putting in the right effort, you will be out. It’s a normal cycle that the athlete faces,” Bindra concluded.
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