The Pole Star of India's chess camp, from Anand to Gukesh

Radosław Wojtaszek was around 21 years old and rated 2600 when he joined Viswanathan Anand's World Championship team. He had played against Anand in a Bundesliga game in 2007, which ended in a draw. Soon after, to the Pole's surprise, Anand asked him if he would be willing to join his team.

- Susan Ninan

BENGALURU: Radosław Wojtaszek was around 21 years old and rated 2600 when he joined Viswanathan Anand's World Championship team. He had played against Anand in a Bundesliga game in 2007, which ended in a draw. Soon after, to the Pole's surprise, Anand asked him if he would be willing to join his team.

A member of Anand's core group seconds, Wojtaszek was part of three of the Indian's five World Championship wins.

He spent most of this year helping another Indian on his World Championship journey.

As a member of Gukesh's team of seconds for the Candidates and the World Championship match, Wojtaszek was initially curious about how a teenager would handle such a high-stakes affair.

"When I was working with Vishy, he was a well-established player who was older and had a compact repertoire. So, in that sense, what he needed was more obvious. But Gukesh needed something different. For me, it was a challenge to understand him at first. I was also not sure how he would approach a match like this because he's still so young. The Game 1 loss came as a shock to all of us. But the way he handled things after that left me very impressed."