What goes on inside the mind of a 17-year-old athlete playing in the biggest event of his career yet, where only finishing first matters? Two days after D Gukesh claimed the Candidates title, thus becoming the youngest player to secure a spot at the World Chess Championship, he and his trainer, Grzegorz Gajewski, offered an insight into the mentality that makes the 17-year-old different. “Even though the game hasn’t started yet, in his mind, he’s already playing it. The preparations are part of the game. He’s fully focussed: analysing different scenarios, not just in terms of openings but also different situations that might occur during the game,” says Polish grandmaster Gajewski, who has also helped other Indian youngsters through the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy and was Viswanathan Anand’s second during his World Championship battles. “Apart from chess preparations, for Gukesh it’s all about staying in the zone. He has a few routines that help him to get into the zone, to focus before a game. In the previous months, we had to introduce a few …