Magnus Carlsen fears Ding Liren may be “permanently broken” after the world champion’s poor performances in Wijk aan Zee in January and at the Freestyle event in Germany in March. Carlsen, who remains world No. 1 despite relinquishing the title in 2023 after a decade-long reign, made his comments on a podcast last week in which he and David Howell also discussed the candidates in Toronto and the surprise victory for 17-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju of India.
Ding won the crown a year ago this week, beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in a thrilling match that led to tiebreaks. Shortly afterwards, he stopped playing for six months, citing a lack of motivation and an unspecified illness, which some sources said was anxiety or depression. At one point he considered retiring.
After his two failures so far in 2024, Ding will play at least three more tournaments before defending his title against Gukesh. At Norwegian Chess in Stavanger, he will take part in a double-round tournament for six players from May 27, together with Carlsen and the American world numbers 2 and 3, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. From August 17 to 30 he will take part in the traditional Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, where Caruana will be his main rival. In mid-September, Ding will lead the Chinese team at the 180-nation Olympiad in Budapest. His 14-game World Cup series against Gukesh begins, likely in India, on November 20.
Related: Chess: Gukesh, 17, shocks favorites to become youngest challenger for title
If Stavanger, St. Louis and Budapest all go badly, could Ding decide to retire? It seems unlikely. If he faces Gukesh, he will earn almost one million euros as the loser of the world championship, regardless of the margin of defeat. If he withdraws, he will be replaced by Nakamura, who officially finished second in Toronto. Giving up his seat to an American would risk political repercussions in Beijing.
Carlsen revealed that he gave Gukesh a one-sentence piece of advice to the candidates: “Don’t be crazy because others usually will.” In that case, Gukesh played conservatively against his three main rivals, scoring best against the bottom half and having a Tournament Performance Rating (TPR) of 2847, which is higher than Carlsen’s current 2830.
In contrast, Nepomniachtchi twice played tamely against tailender Nijat Abasov, while Nakamura lost twice to Vidit Gujrathi.
General Manager Raymond Keene, who has written many books on World Cup matches, has an interesting negative perspective on Gukesh in his latest column in The Article: “His style is in the somewhat characterless mode of Carlsen. There seems to be no driving ambition for victory, as in the plays of Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Tal or Garry Kasparov. Nor can I discern any major strategic intervention, as evidenced by Mikhail Botvinnik or Tigran Petrosian. Gukesh’s strength seems to be the ability to avoid inferior positions while keeping the ball in play and avoiding liquidation through draws. His impressive score with the black pieces is a testament to his counterpunching skills.”
International chess could be heading towards an Indian era that could rival the dominance of the Soviet Union at the end of the twentieth century. Gukesh’s victory has the potential to spark a boom in a country where, in the heart of Chennai and Tamil Nadu, the indoor game is already a credible rival to cricket.
When he returned to Chennai at 3am after the long flight home from Canada, hundreds of fans gathered at the airport as he was wreathed and gave an impromptu press conference. Congratulations came from India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi and cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.
Gukesh has the personality and seems set to become a media hero. Eloquent and fluent, he delivered all the right soundbites to an expectant audience when he said: “Wherever I play, the aim is to be focused and win the match. Ding is a strong player, but I have full confidence that I can beat him. I will prepare well for him.”
A potential showdown is on the horizon in September at the Budapest Olympiad, where India’s young team, led by Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Vidit, will battle for favoritism with the American quartet Caruana, Nakamura, Wesley So and Leinier Dominguez. Russia; which, when the Soviet Union dominated chess in the second half of the twentieth century, will be absent and its teams banned by Fide due to the invasion of Ukraine.
At the age of nine, England’s youngest chess player, Bodhana Sivanandan, appeared. On Sunday, the Harrow pupil set another record as the Harrow Primary School student achieved her first International Masters standard for women with 4.5/9 at the European Women’s Championship in Rhodes, Greece. Her TPR was 2265 versus the required minimum of 2250. And although she lost in round 10, the nine-round standard remains valid. Two more standards are required for the WIM title.
It was difficult, because almost all of her opponents had a higher rating. She played her best game in the second round, when she cleverly converted a passed pawn against a strong Armenian.
Round four was a tough loss in the 139-move marathon against English No. 1 Jovanka Houska, where the decisive error came on move 93 – but then Sivavandan rallied again and played solidly to remain undefeated over the next four rounds.
At IM/WIM level and above, only the Argentinian Faustino Oro, the “chess Messi”, has also achieved a title standard of nine. Oro was a month shy of his 10th birthday at the time, while the English girl only turned nine in March. In Fide’s just-published May ratings list, Sivanandan ranks first in the world for nine-year-olds. Her 2138 rating is higher than all the boys.
However, Russian Roman Shogdzhiev, who defeated five grandmasters in the 2023 World Rapid and Blitz at the age of eight, already has a Fide blitz rating of 2194 (Sivanandan is second at 2185). His 11/11 in the Under-10 World Blitz Championship last weekend is yet to be assessed. Shogdzhiev’s classic rating is only 2013, but that will certainly increase with more results, and he looks like Sivanandan’s rival.
3918: 1…h5+! 2 Kxh5 Ra8! (threat Rh8+ and Rh4 mate) 3 Kg4 Rh8 4 g3 Rh2! 5 Rh1 R8xh3 and Kasparov won with his extra knight. Stokvis prefers 1…h5+ 2 Kxh5 Ne5! as even stronger: 3 Rbc1 Ra8 4 Rc8 Rxc8 5 Bxc8 Rxg2 (threat Rh2+ pairing) 6 Kh4 Rg8! (threat Rh8 mate) 7 Kh3 Rxc8 and wins.