Want to second a World champion? ‘Put aside your personal preferences and get into the player’s shoes,’ says P. Harikrishna

There is a common factor between the men’s and women’s reigning World chess champions: P. Harikrishna worked as a second to both D. Gukesh and Ju Wenjun. Ju retained the women’s title back in 2023, while Gukesh became the youngest World champion in history, at 18, dethroning Ding Liren last month in Singapore. 

Harikrishna, who played a significant role in the Chennai youngster’s triumph, is looking forward to their meeting in the Dutch village of Wijk aan Zee, where they will come face to face across a chessboard, at the Tata Steel tournament, one of the most prestigious events in the chess calendar. It kicks off on January 17.

One of the most prodigious chess talents to have come out of India, Harikrishna was once the World No. 10. He was also a part of India’s gold-medal-winning Olympiad team. The 38-year-old was preparing for Wijk aan Zee at his Prague home when The Hindu caught up with him over the phone for an interview. Excerpts:

At Wijk aan Zee, Gukesh will be playing two of his seconds — you and Vincent Keymer.

Yes, we could not meet Gukesh after he won the World Championship. So it will be nice to meet him, looking forward to it very much.

There is such a strong field at Wijk aan Zee…

The field is very strong actually, with many strong young players and experienced ones as well. Apart from Gukesh, there are players like Fabiano Caruana, Arjun Erigaisi, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, R. Praggnanandhaa, Anish Giri, Wei Yi… I have been preparing for the tournament, I want to give my best. The last time I played was in 2021. And I had played a couple of times earlier as well.

Wei and you worked together as seconds for Ju for her last World title match…

Yes, for her match against Lei Tingjie, but unfortunately in 2023, there was not much time. We had only three months to prepare. But generally, the preparation should be around six months.

With Gukesh, it was more than that, wasn’t it?

Yes. I began working with him actually for the Candidates tournament [held in April in Toronto]. Once he was sure of qualifying for the Candidates, which was after the World Rapid and Blitz Championships, the last event in the FIDE circuit, he messaged me and asked if I could help. So we started preparing for the Candidates. And naturally, after he won the Candidates, he wanted to have the team that helped him. He also wanted Vincent, who joined us for the match.

Gukesh’s team was headed by Grzegorz Gajewski and it also included Radoslaw Wojtaszek, Jan-Krzysztof Duda and Jan Klimkowski. How did the team function?

We were analysing in the best possible way so we could give the ideas to Gukesh. While the match was on, only Gajewski was with Gukesh in Singapore, we were based in Spain. That worked perfectly for us time-zone-wise. When they go to sleep we could prepare.

Gajewski would, in their evenings, ask us to check something. And then he gave a lot of valuable inputs. And along the lines, we developed which idea could be interesting for Gukesh to play the next day. And to make that idea as clean as possible was our task.

Sometimes we could come up with a better idea, sometimes maybe not convincing. So we had a lot of discussions, a lot of analyses. We did it together. Apart from the work we did in the openings, Gukesh played a lot of blitz games as training.

Yes, Gajewski told me that Gukesh was very well prepared for the tie-breaks if required, by playing hundreds of blitz games.

But, openings are the main part of the preparation. And, you know, with so many strong players in the team, many ideas come up. I also had another role, which was to analyse some main games and some positions. And we used to have this during camps also.

Finally! Harikrishna, who first played in the Olympiad in 2000, ended his wait for a medal with the team gold in 2024. | Photo credit: Nagara Gopal

The deep preparation in the opening seems to have paid off for Gukesh, as he looked so sure, making his opening moves quickly in most of the games, which gave him the clear advantage in time over Ding. You must be happy with the way the openings went for Gukesh.

Absolutely. For us seconds, it is not the best opening that he remembers, but the one which he feels good about. That is the most important. He played well in the openings which we discussed. Right from the beginning we decided to have some human touch, because the computer can suggest many, many things. So, we made sure that we equalised not just with the help of engines, but that also we should take some risks. I think that really worked. And we looked at some ideas from games played at the lower levels, so they were not novelties but they helped.

The first game, which Gukesh lost, was a little bit of a setback, I have to say. But, after that, you could see that whatever openings we were choosing, he was feeling good, except Game 12. In that game, Ding also played quite well, I have to add.

He did, almost flawless he was. And that was possibly the best game Ding has played in recent times.

Yes. And credit to Gukesh for being able to recover from that.

How did you find this process of being a second? Is it tiring and how is it different from being a player?

As a player, you have your own choices, but as a second, you need to put aside your personal preferences and go into the shoes of the player and look at what is best. At the same time, you should not lose your strength because you look into what the player wants. You should also use your own strength, to understand the opening or choice of ideas. Yes, it is definitely quite tiring.

How important was the Olympiad gold for you as a player? You have been playing at the Olympiads for a long, long time.

Yes. My first Olympiad was in 2000 when I was 14. And I played all the Olympiads after that except the one in 2014. Two times we finished fourth when I was a member, once in Baku in 2016. And the second time was in Chennai in 2022. Thankfully, the B team won the bronze in Chennai, but the A team, which I was part of, finished fourth. The Olympiad had been the only team competition in which I didn’t win a medal. I have won medals at the Asian Games and Asian Team Championships. So I am glad that now I have an Olympiad medal.