Commentary Meet the 'seconds' – unsung heroes behind every champ

There's a lot of second guessing going on at the Fide World Championship.

- Jarred Neubronner

It's happening on the chess board, where defending champion Ding Liren is locked in a tight battle with challenger Gukesh Dommaraju.

And also off the board, as fans try to figure out who exactly the seconds behind the duo are.

In world chess championship terminology, a "second" refers to an assistant, usually a strong chess player himself such as a grandmaster, who helps a player prepare for the tournament.

Both Ding and Gukesh have a lean team of seconds.

Ding's two known seconds so far are grandmasters Richard Rapport of Hungary and fellow Chinese Ni Hua, both strong players in their own right.

Rapport has an Elo rating of 2,721, very close to Ding's 2,728. With Rapport having a peak rating of 2,776, he would not have looked out of place competing in the world championship.

Gukesh too has a formidable second. His known assistant is grandmaster Grzegorz Gajewski, a former Polish national team player. The latter brings with him valuable world championship experience, having previously been a second for Indian chess legend Viswanathan Anand in his 2014 world championship match against Magnus Carlsen.

Unfortunately for the fans, the players will likely only reveal their remaining supporting cast after the match is over, in line with tradition - hence the guesswork.

A key role of a second entails spending countless hours scrolling through some of the world's leading computer chess engine software and game databases to analyse the strengths and weaknesses of the opponent.

The individual also researches on potential chess opening novelties to surprise the opponent in the actual match. Prior to each game, seconds will analyse the previous game to see if any tweaks are required, and advise the player on issues such as opening choices and the amount of risks to take.