Jokic’s long-time coach, Grzegorz Gajewski, explains what’s going on with this year’s world champion – ‘It’s kind of a transition period’ | Chess News

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Jokich seems to be playing a lot this year. There seems to be an attempt to play as many variations – fast, fast, free – as possible rather than just focusing on classical chess…

I don’t think he plays much more. Earlier also, he used to play a lot and used to play many open tournaments. It is clear that the Open Championships are no longer as attractive to him as they used to be. This partly explains this shift. Secondly, he receives invitations from everywhere. Like a grand chess round, which is a very attractive round. Part of a chess grand tour is the fast and lightning section. There is no way around that. Yes, we are trying to improve in all possible ways. This is not a transformation. It’s just catching up. The ability to play when time is low is part of the classic game as well. Therefore, by improving his fast and lightning skills, I believe we can also improve the classic skills as well. Of course, classical chess remains the priority.

Gokesh travels constantly, how does he deal with the fatigue and jet lag that accompanies it?

It’s part of the job. Sometimes it is difficult when you have to travel to the United States and back. There is a lot of jet lag. But he’s young, he’s strong. He takes care of his proteins. He is very responsible when it comes to getting good sleep. We know that this is kind of essential for you to be fresh and have plenty of energy for the game.

How would you summarize Gokesh’s 2025 plan? He came close to the title in Wijk aan Zee. But it seems like every time he loses a tournament, people talk like it’s the end of the world…

It is very typical of anyone who works their whole life to achieve something and finally achieves it. It puts you in a difficult position because you have to come up with new goals and new ways to motivate yourself. It’s kind of a transitional period for Jokich. We must not forget that it is very small and the competition is very strong. It’s not that by winning the title, he has a monopoly on winning all the matches he plays. It is a very competitive sport and all the other players work hard to beat him. There have been some ups, and there have been some downs. Just mentally, physically and athletically, I think we’re kind of getting back on track. Hopefully, the ECC will be the first sign of Jokic returning to his best form.

You talked about it being a transitional year. Are there new things he is looking forward to learning this year?

There are some items he needs to work on. He is known for his aggressive style of chess. The grinding part of his style is not common. But we already saw an example of this two days ago (in the second round of the World Cup). We do not mean to change its style, but only to add new elements to it. Because in modern chess, you can’t always control what kind of position you’ll get. Of course, we have to be as flexible as possible.

Jokic was eliminated from the 2026 FIDE World Cup on Saturday. (Photo source: Michal Valusha/FIDE)

We see now that when he is in India, a lot of kids come and touch his feet and call him sir, even though he is only 19 years old. How is he coping with his world champion status away from the plate?

I don’t think it’s a problem for him. Obviously there’s a lot of interest and there’s always some pressure that comes with the attention. But Gokesh really understands this situation and handles it well.

Do opponents treat him differently?

I think it’s great. Certainly some opponents play against him differently now than they used to. I wouldn’t say they made him a target. He has more respect than them. This makes them play more responsibly. When he was younger and lower ranked, opportunities kept coming to him because higher-ranked players were willing to take risks. Now I don’t think there is a player who wants to take a risk against Jokic. So sometimes he’s the one who has to take the risk. And of course he does. And sometimes you pay the price.