A stony-faced D Gukesh managed to belie the emotions he was feeling underneath throughout the FIDE Candidates tournament in Toronto (Canada) but his father Dr. Rajinikanth, was a bundle of nervous energy as he dropped his teenaged son to the venue for the 14th and final round of the tournament where he faced American Hikaru Nakamura.
Gukesh won the Fide Candidates 2024 at 17 years of age, becoming the youngest ever to win the tournament, breaking the record of the legendary Garry Kasparov in the process.
Rajinikanth reveals he didn’t stay back to watch the match and returned to his hotel room to force himself to sleep.
“I don’t know about him (Gukesh), he always looks somewhat stony-faced and whether he acts or not I don’t know but I couldn’t like handle that pressure. I was getting very nervous for myself. I just came and dropped him for the match and went back. I forcefully tried to sleep and just wanted to avoid watching the game at all,” Rajinikanth told ChessBase India in an interview.
Gukesh's father, Mr. Rajinikanth narrates the exciting events happening between Gukesh's draw in the final round and the crazy Fabi-Nepo encounter!#chess #chessbaseindia #gukesh #candidates2024 pic.twitter.com/nPmDRClPeg— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) April 23, 2024
Rajinikanth then went to pick up Gukesh after the contest with Nakamura ended in a draw.
Watching his son getting ‘restless’ with the evaluation underway, Rajinikanth decided they better return to their base and start preparing for the tiebreaks no matter what the final outcome.
“After the game was drawn, I went to the venue to pick him up and the organisers asked him to stay back as there might be a decision (soon) but seeing the evaluation going up and down, I could see he (Gukesh) was getting restless. So I just told him ‘We’ll better go to the hotel and start preparing for tiebreaks whatever happens. We’ll prepare for the worst, start working for tiebreaks rather than anticipating something like that,'” Rajinikanth recalled.
“So we took a decision, we went to the hotel and he and his coach wanted to start with the tie breaks preparation. However, before that they decided to go for a walk. They didn’t want to see the game going on or the evaluation. The moment they stepped out of the hotel and went to the road, I got the message from the organisers that it’s a draw, Gukesh has won. So, he has to come back to the venue,” he added.
Rajinikanth erupted with joy and began chasing his son to inform him of the result.
“I just lost my control. I ran from the hotel room to the road and I was chasing them, they were walking happily. I just went back and tapped both their shoulders and told, ‘It’s done, no need for preparation, we have to go to the venue.'” he said.
“So Gukesh was very happy, just lifted him in the road only. So like everybody on the road were staring at (us and thinking) what these three crazy people are doing. One is running and one is lifting one kid. It was a happy moment, very nervous moment but Gukesh wasn’t showing. I was restless. It all ended well so it’s a happy moment,” he added.
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