World chess champion D Gukesh prepares for a 'fun year' with new goals in 2025

D Gukesh achieved remarkable success in the last month, winning the World Championship and receiving the prestigious Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna award. However, the chess prodigy is now shifting his focus to the challenges of 2025.
Gukesh's next appearance will be at the Tata Steel tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, starting January 17.
The tournament will feature top players like Anish Giri, Arjun Erigaisi, Fabiano Caruana, and R Praggnanandhaa.
"Yeah, 2025 will offer a very tough challenge. A lot of new and interesting tournaments are coming up. The world championship was in the past. I'm very happy about it and all the awards and receptions," Gukesh told a select media gathering during the felicitation ceremony organised by WestBridge Capital in Bengaluru on Sunday.
"But now, I have started thinking about new goals, new tournaments and new ways to prepare. The goal, the approach will be the same, to give my best, to keep improving myself, and win as many tournaments as possible.
"So, I am looking forward to a fun year with a lot of learning, a lot of improvements and hopefully a lot of good results," he added.
He anticipates a year of learning, improvement, and positive outcomes. Despite the added pressure and expectations that come with being a world champion, Gukesh is ready for the spotlight.
"Yeah, I have been used to being under the attention for a while. Obviously, after the world championship, it will be more. But the basic things I remember are to keep improving myself and accepting failures when they come.
"I think in general, I have high expectations of myself. So, I think my aim is to meet my own expectations rather than that of others," he said.
He prioritizes meeting his own expectations rather than those of others. He also reflected on the experience of handling the increased attention and recognition after his World Championship win.
"I had thought that it (winning the World Championship) would be somewhat similar to the Candidates, but obviously it's much more. I'm grateful for all the attention and recognition.
"I guess one thing is to manage these things with the training. But after the (World Championship) match, I also need some recovery period. I've started training a bit. But it will be more serious soon," he explained.
He emphasized the need to balance training with managing the increased attention and allowing for recovery. Viswanathan Anand, five-time world champion and Gukesh's mentor, commented on the impact of Gukesh's victory.
"I think it brings back the spotlight to chess. If you project this forward, it's possible that in every single tournament there is some Indian playing that you can look forward to watching.
"So I hope a lot of the dots are connected. The audience numbers in India are very good. Now, we have regular broadcasts and everything. So, I think it will be a sport in the main line.
"Of course, Gukesh will spearhead that, especially as being the world champion. But now people are interested to see if there will be Indians playing in a tournament. So there's a lot of excitement at all stages.
"And the second effect, which is maybe even more profound, is that young players will be inspired to take up the game," Anand said.