The defending world champion in Gukesh has not yet won a single match after six days of competition at the Grand Colem Freestyle Chess event in Weissenhaus, Germany. However, its ability to stay calm even in chaotic games is what made the heads turn.
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D Gukesh spent a forgetful time during the opening event of the Grand Chelem Freestyle tour. Six days have passed since the start of the event at the Weissenhaus Private Nature Luxury Resort located on the German Baltic Coast, and the reigning world champion has not yet won a victory.
The 18 -year -old has lost five games so far and pulled twice as much. This included consecutive defeats against Fabiano Caruana in the quarterfinals, and more recently, in match 2 of the fast shooting broken during the classification match of the 5th-8th against Hikaru Nakamura.
Or the teenage chess star suddenly lost his contact after defeating Ding Liren at the Fid World Championship in December and finished finalist at the Tata Steel chess tournament. Or he takes his time to get used to unpredictable format of the Freestyle failures, where the layout of the pieces behind the pawn is chosen at random and was known to the players 15 minutes before the start of a match.
Gukesh, however, turned heads to Weissenhaus, even if it is not for his performances on board.
Gukesh’s stable heart rate takes Weissenhaus by surprise
Among the unique characteristics of the Grand Chelem Freestyle chess tour appear the `Confession cabins ” – the private areas where the player can freely express his feelings concerning the current state of the game – as well as the sensors of the heart rate . The latter measures the cardiad sockets of the players involved in a game and displays them on the screen in real time.
More often than not, it is an indicator of the mental state in which the player is and if the nerves begin to take over him, in particular towards the end of the game when the time is also exhausted on the ‘clock.
Regarding Gukesh, however, the sensors of the heart rate barely fluctuate even if it is locked in a launched battle, which was the case in match 1 of fast blissing with Nakamura in which the two played a draw that lasted 103 Move!
Gukesh’s heart rate is 66 while Fabi has more than 100. The world champion is freezing 🥶🥶 #Freestylechess pic.twitter.com/j6zpcym5rw
– Chess.com (@Chesscom) February 9, 2025
Gukesh’s ability to maintain a cool head, even in a disastrous situation, was better highlighted during his meeting in the quarter -finals with Caruana. The Italian-American grandmaker had triumphed in 40 and 18 movements respectively in matches 1 and 2. In the first match, however, Gukesh’s heart rate read 78 while Caruana was 124-this despite the fact that the game was still in terms of level.
The commentator David Howell would later say to Caruana that Gukesh’s heart rate remained in the 60-70 range, even when things were tightened while his jump between 100 and 120, to which the world n ° 4 replied: “
“He was about 70 years old?” A shocked Caruana is. “It’s quite impressive … In addition, Magnus’ heart rate does not increase much.”
Gukesh had shown similar composure during his triumph on Ding during the confrontation of the world championship in Singapore in November-December. GUKESH, who is known to have entered a meditative state during the matches, had hired the services of the mental packaging coach Paddy Upton, who had previously worked with the Indian team during their triumph during the ICC World Cup 2011.
Upton’s influence would certainly have helped Gukesh better manage his nerves during a match, even against some of the best in the world.
