Meditation & Yoga: D Gukesh Reveals How He Avoids Burnout While Being India's Chess Icon

Ace Indian chess player D Gukesh has revealed that meditation and yoga have been key to not getting burned out while constantly in the groove. The youngster admitted that while he was not adept at handling pressure during his initial days in the sport, the eventual maturity helped him maintain his mental health and handle the psychological part of the game well.Gukesh was a key architect in India’s historic win at the Chess Olympiad, as the men's team beat Slovenia 3.5-0.5 in the final round to claim their first-ever gold at the prestigious event. Not just Gukesh and his bunch of men, but the Indian women's team also won gold to make it a historic double for the country at the prestigious event in Budapest.

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"I think it's about following some good practices over a long period. I've been practising meditation and yoga for quite some time already. And surely it helped and also I used to handle these things very badly before. But I think once I got a bit mature, with experience, I just got better at handling the situations," Gukesh said while speaking to FIDE after the historic win. Gukesh's big assignments don't end with the Chess Olympiad win, as he is all set to face China's Ding Liren for the world title later this year, but he said that the thoughts of the impending tournament didn't cross his mind during the Olympiad. "In this tournament, I wasn't thinking about the match. Olympiad is one of the most important tournaments of the year and I was just thinking about the event, but it's nice to see that I'm getting into shape and feeling myself," Gukesh said. The youngster's brilliant run at the Olympiad included a stunning win against world No. 3 Fabiano Caruana in Saturday’s crucial game against the USA. Notably, Gukesh delivered a stunning 9/10 score with a 3056 performance rating, the sole player in the Olympiad to break the 3000+ mark. His brilliant form earned him the gold on board 1 besides the team gold. "I guess it's just sticking with the discipline and staying focused on the tournament. And once you get into the rhythm, everything happens automatically. Once I got the first four wins, I thought I'd set myself up for a very great tournament," Gukesh said. The youngster will face Liren in the World Championship in Singapore on November 20.