Gukesh’s chief trainer names unknown chess player for key role in World C’ship win: ‘Not highly-rated right now, but…’

But a massive blunder by the Chinese grandmaster in the 55th move saw him resign and concede to Gukesh in a historic result. To qualify for a showdown with Liren, Gukesh needed to win the Candidates Tournament in April this year. Ahead of the event, he wasn’t the favourite, but ended up silencing his critics to win the competition.

Grzegorz Gajewski names unknown chess star who helped D Gukesh

Speaking to ChessBase.com, Gukesh’s chief trainer Grzegorz Gajewski made a key revelation during an interview. Explaining his role and of his team members, Gajewski named an unknown chess player, who ‘did a lot of great work during the tournament itself’. The player also worked as Gukesh’s second in the tournament.

He said, “And then, for the Candidates Tournament itself, we thought it would be good to have some young gun, someone who is both talented and hard-working. Because obviously, the young players are very ambitious, and they want to achieve much. And they just love chess.”

“Yeah, they also think slightly differently. So, it’s good to have someone from a younger generation. And then, the idea came to ask Jan Klimkowski to help. He is not so high-rated right now, but he is already a grandmaster. He is young, he is ambitious, and he had some interesting ideas in openings. And he seemed to understand the game pretty well for his age. So, we thought he would make a lot of sense. And he actually did a lot of great work during the tournament itself, and he was a real help for me.”

When he was told that nobody had heard of Klimkowski before, he said, “The funny thing is he was actually here during the match because he was playing the Singapore Open. He almost won the tournament. He lost the final round, but he was leading before the last round.”

Although Gajewski mentioned that Klimkowski is a Grandmaster, but according to FIDE’s official website, he has the title of an International Master. He has a standard rating of 2504, with a 2420 in rapid and 2445 in blitz.

Gukesh has decided to skip the ongoing World Rapid and Blitz Championship, a format which is also not his strength. He will be back in action next year, and is set to take on the likes of Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen in confirmed fixtures.