Gukesh Dommaraju’s victory in the World Chess Championship is a landmark moment not only for chess but for Indian sports as a whole.

The first time Paddy Upton and D Gukesh saw each other in person was after the 14th round game, which the latter won to become the youngest-ever world champion at the age of 18.

Paddy Upton, who previously worked with the Indian cricket and hockey team, served as Gukesh's mental conditioning coach for the last six months

The biggest challenge Gukesh and Upton faced was to keep the mental sharpness over three weeks of intense and draining chess

Upton was the Indian Cricket Team’s mental conditioning coach during the 2011 World Cup, which they lifted for the first time in 28 years, while he held the same position with the Men’s Hockey Team at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021,