Gukesh D’s opening gambits and match strategies that defeated Ding Liren and crowned him the youngest chess world champion were prepared in a hotel room in the Spanish coastal town of Manilva.
The behind-the-scenes work often went on late into the night and was exhaustive, Vincent Kemmer, one of Gukesh’s seconds for the World Championship match against Ding Liren, revealed in an interview with German publication Der Spiegel.
After being crowned world champion on Thursday, Gukesh named German sensation Kemmer as one of his back-room team players. “Gukesh asked me to be part of his team for the World Championship at the Grand Chess Tour in Warsaw in June,” Vincent had said.
It is rare for a young player with his own ambitions to become a part of his direct rival’s team that will one day become world champions. But Kemar couldn’t turn down Gukesh when the Indian teenager approached him in April after securing his spot in the World Championship tie by winning the Candidates Tournament.
“I personally see this as an opportunity to gain experience with work at an absolutely high level… among other things, with a view to qualifying for the candidate competition 2026,” Kimmer told Spiegel.
Candidates tournament will decide the players who will challenge Gukesh for the world crown.
Kimmer said several training camps were held in the months leading up to the World Championships. After Gukesh defeated Ding in Game 14 to defeat the Chinese and become the new champion, Kemer posted a photo from Manilva with Indian Grandmaster Pentala Harikrishna and Polish Grandmaster Radoslaw Wojtazek.
“During the World Championships, I was in Manilva, Spain with Pentala Harikrishna and Radoslaw Wojtazek, from where we supported Gukesh’s opening preparations,” Kemmer told the German daily. “The work itself was intensive and exhausting, especially during the games as we often worked late into the night. I was even more delighted that the efforts of all involved had finally been crowned with success.”
Kemmer is considered to be the greatest German chess genius after Emanuel Lasker, the only German chess world champion to date. Lasker held the title from 1894 to 1921.
Another integral member of Team Gukesh, Grzegorz Gajewski, told The Indian Express that they were taking a ‘risk’ by including Kemar but ‘it happened because he brought a lot of interesting ideas.’
“With Vincent, we knew he was a very good person, a very strong player. But we didn’t know how he would work. We didn’t know what he would really bring to the team. We kind of took a risk. It paid off because he did a lot. Brought interesting ideas and a lot of willingness to work hard, but that’s what we expected,” Gajewski said.
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