Bengaluru: Radoslaw Wojtaszek was just about 21 and had a rating of 2600 when he became part of Viswanathan Anand’s World Championship squad. He had faced Anand in a Bundesliga match back in 2007, which ended in a draw. To his surprise, Anand later reached out to him, asking if he’d like to join his team. As a key second in Anand’s group, Wojtaszek contributed to three of Anand’s five World Championship victories.

This year, he focused on supporting another Indian player in his World Championship quest.

As part of Gukesh’s team of seconds for both the Candidates and the World Championship match, Wojtaszek was initially intrigued to see how a teenager would manage such a pressure-filled situation.

When I was teaming up with Vishy, he was already a seasoned player with a solid set of skills. So, it was pretty clear what he needed. Guki, on the other hand, was a different story. At first, figuring him out was a bit of a puzzle for me. I wasn't quite sure how he would tackle a match like this since he’s still quite young. The loss in Game 1 caught us all off guard. However, I was really impressed with how he managed everything afterward.

During the match, Wojtaszek mentioned that he was keeping tabs on the daily game breakdowns from former world champion Magnus Carlsen on his ‘TakeTake Take’ app. “I made sure to catch what Magnus was saying because I really respect his views. His insights are backed by experience, and I thought it was a smart move to follow his analysis. Some days, it was comforting to see that my thoughts on a game lined up with Magnus’s. Of course, we weren’t just making decisions based on his commentary, but any tips from such a strong player are definitely valuable.”

Wojtaszek, along with Pentala Harikrishna and Vincent Keymer, set up camp in southern Spain during the tournament. “I think this approach is something Magnus pioneered. He usually had just his coach, Peter Heine Nielsen, with him for the matches, while the rest of the team stayed out of sight. It’s definitely a challenge to spend 23 days with two other players in a foreign country unless you have a solid connection, which we were lucky to have. It was a grind with hardly any sleep, and since Gaju (Grzegorz Gajewski, Gukesh’s coach) and I go way back, we didn’t need to say much to understand each other’s needs. Hari brought a wealth of experience, especially with Chinese players, which was super useful. And even though Vincent is quite young, he’s already a top player and put in a lot of effort to come up with fresh ideas. It took me back to when I was the ‘youngster’ in Vishy’s team.”

“Most of the innovative ideas came from Gaju and Vincent. My role was to refine those ideas a bit to ensure we had some control over them. The last few rounds were challenging since we were running low on pre-prepared ideas. Gaju deserves a lot of credit for his creativity; he always seemed to have a new idea when we needed one. Ultimately, it was up to Guki to decide whether to implement a particular idea. Even though he’s not super experienced, Guki has an amazing instinct for what to do at the right time, and he was great at reading Ding (Liren). He shared his insights with us, which were incredibly valuable,” says the 37-year-old Polish GM.

Preparation has changed a lot since Wojtaszek was in his twenties, working as a second for Anand. “Back then, it was all about coming up with solid ideas. Now, it’s crucial to consider who you’re tailoring those ideas for. For example, Gukesh prefers a more aggressive style, while against Ding, it was better to play a longer game, so we had to come up with strategies that fit that plan.”

In Game 14, while Gukesh was pushing in a position that was technically a draw, Gajewski sent an email to the team about a line that could be worth exploring in the tiebreaks the next day. A mistake from Ding suddenly wrapped up the match and the title.

Looking back, it was definitely the right move for Gukesh to keep playing, even when the engines suggested he was pushing it too hard. He was always putting Ding on the back foot. In the end, it all seemed to come together and led to that final mistake.

I really enjoyed working with both Vishy and Guki. They’re quite different from each other, but both are amazing in their own ways. One thing they share is that once they start preparing for a match, they dive in completely.

For Wojtaszek and Harikrishna, both dads of little ones, being away from home for weeks must have been tough. “My son is one,” Wojtaszek shares, “so I wanted to get back home after the match in time to see his first steps.”

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