Gukesh Domaraju World Champion

Sacrifices and Survivorship bias

Gukesh Domaraju also known as Gukesh D is a chess prodigy who has become the WORLD CHESS Champion at the age of 18 making him the youngest ever to achieve this feat.

While the celebrations were ON, I happened to listen to Gukesh’s speech where he briefly mentioned the family’s lack of means and the “sacrifices” his father had to make and how this success is more of family’s win rather than his alone.

In 2017 his father, Rajinikanth, an ENT surgeon, quit his job to help Gukesh pursue his chess career.

At this time, Gukesh was an IM (International Master) with a lot of promise and the word ‘Child prodigy’ attached next to his name.

This blog is in no way an attempt to take the thunder away from what Gukesh has achieved, make NO mistake, Gukesh has created history and his name is etched in it with golden ink in what appears to be ONLY the beginning of his career.

This blog is although an attempt to draw a parallel universe and put a spotlight on a human folly where we judge an action based on result and not its efficacy.

Father sacrificing his career for his kid’s career. That is what we are discussing here.

Why the FUCK.

First of ALL, there is NO SUCH THING AS SACRIFICE.

Regardless of how close the relationship (even as close as Father/Son. Mom/Son etc) there is no such thing as a sacrifice. The reciprocation is ALWAYS built into the equation. It may not be a monetary reciprocation, but a behavioral one but a sense of expectation gets factored in every single time.

I have seen this play out in North Indian households where Moms leave the job “for the kids” and then make that ‘favor’ count for the rest of their miserable victimhood existence.

That is human nature, you cannot fight it, selflessness is just an ego/guilt trip you take and then over a period of time. the effect wears out.

Chess as a career is a world of Extremistan. (winner takes all and the rest become youtube influencers or chess coaches living off their spouses salaries). TRUTH HURTS.

In a parallel universe, just like 100s of IMs Gukesh could have been yet another chess player with a lot of promise who could not deliver. How do you justify Father’s quitting of career in such a scenario. Picture the bitterness and frustration of the father and how that would spill into the conversations. Also picture the pressure to perform on the young Gukesh. “Your father sacrificed his career for you, you gotta perform you idiot, how dare u NOT concentrate. How dare you propose to that girl, Chess should be your first and ONLY priority.

I am not an expert and I do not want to exaggerate but this is precisely the fertile ground where weeds like serious psychological and mental blocks and illnesses take shape. You do not want this kind of childhood even for your enemies.

We live in a funny world, the other day I saw a young 5 year old getting interviewed with a book in his hand (the book that he had written)

Well, if a 5-year-old has written a book, it tells me NOTHING about the kid but EVERYTHING about the douchebag parents.

Counter Argument.

A very Powerful counter argument to above narrative is that We are all playing a part in this unfolding drama and this is the way it was supposed to happen. Things and events happen, circumstances are created that are suitable for that thing to happen and our limited human brains are incapable of calculating the 20 move sequence that cosmos has already calculated and playing out through us.

Gukesh was destined for this GLORY, actually if you look at how it all manifested, you would believe in this counter argument, atleast I do.

I mean, Gukesh was NOT EVEN qualifying for the candidates. There was no certainty if Chennai event would happen, (It did). Gukesh won that tournament on demand (what are the odds) and qualified for the candidates.

In candidates the last match between Nepo and fabi was a HUGE SEESAW finally culminating into a draw, they basically cancelled each other out making Gukesh the winner. (what are the odds)

And then in the Finals, match was heading for faster time controls where Ding would have been the Favorite (intuitive player) but he self destructed from a position of win or easy draw to a difficult draw and finally a blunder leading to a shocking defeat.

Gukesh was destined to be the World champion and everyone including he himself, his parents, coaches, players, opponents played their allocated part.

Comments are welcome.