All the king's men: The 'seconds' and their crucial role in high-stakes games

On most game days, Ding Liren is accompanied by his second, Richard Rapport — dressed in striking shorts — up to the playing arena.

- Susan Ninan

The Hungarian Grandmaster, who was second to the reigning world champion during last year's match as well, is usually flanked by another team member, Ni Hua. They watch Ding disappear behind the door before they head back up to their hotel rooms to perhaps catch up on some sleep or work on the next day's game. Gukesh is usually seen ahead of the games with his father Rajini Kanth and trainer Grzegorz Gajewski. His extended team is operating in the shadows.

In chess, a second or trainer is usually a professional player who assists another usually higher-rated player with preparation for tournaments. For matches like the World Championship, teams are put together months in advance. A player picks seconds based on their opening repertoire, style of play, domain of expertise and they are expected to combine computer assistance with human know-how to produce strategies as well as play training games with the player if needed. The team trawls through engine evaluations, looks for deviations, novelties, lesser-known continuations and surprises and compiles the necessary information for the player into bite-sized formats and revises before games.

In high-stakes matches like this one, players often want to keep the identity of their team under wraps, so as to not give away any information. Much like Gukesh has chosen to do for this match.