On Monday, Javokhir Sindarov found himself grappling with what he called an ‘emergency problem’. The Uzbek prodigy was having troubles with his Counter Strike 2 account, which left him posting on X seeking help. Sindarov’s love for Counter Strike often competes for air time in his mind with chess, the sport that he could be a king of in six months’ time should he defeat D Gukesh.“Everyone in chess should be more professional than me,” Sindarov tells the Indian media in Oslo on Tuesday as a contagious grin spreads across his face. “When I got a problem with my account yesterday, maybe it was a message for me to focus on chess.”The 20-year-old is in Oslo these days to support Bibisara Assaubayeva. The conversation should be about chess, but it inevitably revolves around Counter Strike.The story of how Sindarov found chess also has a video game back story, one which he tells with particular relish. When he was a young boy of six years of age, his family would find him sneaking out to play video games.“Even when I was four, five years old, I really loved to play computer games. Any game! Sometimes, back when I was six years old, when everyone was asleep, I would go to the computer and play until 4 and 5 a.m. So then my grandfather started to teach me chess,” says Sindarov, who won the Candidates tournament without a single defeat a couple of months back. Uzbek chess prodigy Javokhir Sindarov makes his opening move in the Candidates chess tournament in Cyprus. (Photo: FIDE/Niki Riga)Sindarov repeats multiple times during the interaction that he is aware of his potential. He then illustrates with an example of just how exceptional he can be in chess.The story goes that back when he was a seven-year-old, having learnt the sport from his grandfather barely a year back, he competed in the Uzbekistan U10 national championship.Story continues below this ad“That year, Nodirbek Abdusattorov also played. He had just won the U8 World Championship. So in Uzbekistan, for young players he was a superhero. Everyone was thinking if he comes to any tournament, he will win. But he knew very little of me. When we played the first time, I was very close to a win, but it ended in a draw. Then I won this tournament, the Uzbekistan Under 10 Championship.”In six months, Sindarov will be the boy sitting in front of India’s D Gukesh in a battle for the classical world champion’s crown. The two could not be more different.Also Read | Bulletproof no more: Praggnanandhaa hands Javokhir Sindarov a classical defeatThe amount of hours Gukesh poured into chess from a young age is now well known. Even his childhood coaches are in awe of his unwavering obsession with chess when he was a schoolboy. Sindarov, meanwhile, had no such hang-ups about the sport.“(When I was young) I would train 15 hours in chess for a week. It’s not a level (needed) for a grandmaster. I was at 2670 or 2680. But when I started working seriously, I got more than 80 ELO rating points in one year,” Sindarov says.Story continues below this adCounter Strike is a part of his daily routine. When he won the FIDE World Cup in Goa last year, he played extensively at his hotel in Arpora with his second Mukhiddin Madaminov. Counter Strike was a part of his day at the Candidates earlier this year in Cyprus as well. Uzbek chess prodigy Javokhir Sindarov makes his opening move in the Candidates chess tournament in Cyprus. (Photo: FIDE/Niki Riga)“Some people do yoga. I play Counter Strike,” he laughs before explaining: “It helps me to kill all of my negative emotions. I’m trying to kill these negative emotions by playing Counter Strike. After I’m done playing I start feeling like I’m born right now and I can do everything.”Ask him what his biggest motivation is to win the world championship later this year and he says: “When I started to play chess, I wanted to become like Magnus Carlsen, the world champion.”Sindarov admits that his immediate focus is on tournaments like the Sinquefield Cup and the Olympiad. He will also watch some matches of the Uzbekistan football team at the FIFA World Cup in the US. Then, once these are behind him, he will fully train his focus on the Gukesh challenge.Story continues below this ad“He doesn’t have weaknesses that you can see. I haven’t focussed on his games as of now. I’ll probably start next month. My team is already working on this ofcourse,” says Sindarov.These days, he admits, the goal is to become better than anyone in the sport.“I’m playing chess because I want to be better than everyone. I’m not sure I will end up being better, but I want to give it a try,” he says before pausing. “I mean, why am I even playing chess if I don’t want to become better than everyone?”(The writer is in Norway at the invitation for Norway Chess)