Magnus Carlsen feels Ding Liren has still not recovered from winning the historic World Chess Championship in 2023 and probably a win against Gukesh later this year will help him recover mentally.
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Despite being the world champion Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren is not considered the favourite for the World Chess Championship against India’s D Gukesh which starts in Singapore on 15 November. Gukesh, 18, is hoping to become the youngest-ever world chess champion, while China’s first world champion, Liren, will be looking to defend his title.
The 32-year-old Liren won the World Chess Championship in 2023 by beating Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, but has struggled for form ever since. His last win in a classical game came in the Tata Steel Chess tournament held in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands, in January 2024, while Gukesh has been in blistering form,
winning the FIDE Candidates earlier this year at the age of 17 and helping India
win their first gold medal at the Chess Olympiad in 2024.
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Carlsen: ‘Liren yet to recover from 2023 win’
World No.1 Magnus Carlsen feels Ding has still not recovered from winning the historic world championship and probably a win against Gukesh later this year will help him recover mentally.
“I think people realise that the World Championship is a very tough thing. It’s one thing to prepare for the world championship. But I don’t think you can quite prepare for the intensity of the championship without actually playing it,” Magnus Carlsen said on the Take Take Take app.
“A lot of people find it tough both to play but also to recover. What I think happened with Ding is that he has not completely recovered from that World Championship yet. You could argue that maybe the only thing that could make him recover completely is to win this one.”
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Liren was allowed to take part in the 2023 World Championship after the then-reigning champion Carlsen decided to forfeit his crown.
Carlsen revealed that he has not spoken to Liren about the upcoming high-stakes tie but his advice would be for the Chinese to treat every match just as a “normal game”.
“I haven’t talked to Ding about that. I feel like I don’t want to pry. So obviously if he asked me I would give my very best advice. But I haven’t talked to him about it,” Carlsen said.
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“I would say it’s not easy. In his position, I would try and think that everything that’s happened the last few years, none of it matters if he wins the World Championship. All of that will be quite quickly forgotten. He has very little to lose. And just treat every game like it’s a normal game. Try to put himself in a position like he would have done five years ago. And everyone knows that Ding is capable.”
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Carlsen: ‘Gukesh doesn’t have world championship experience’
While dissecting Liren’s issues, Carlsen said that the Chinese is not playing his normal game, instead trying to overcompensate but he should be aware that chances would come against inexperienced Gukesh.
“You can sense when Ding plays that he is lacking confidence. He’s apprehensive in his play. It feels like he’s making some steps. Like he’s trying to play more aggressively, trying to play more of the chess that he can play. But he’s still struggling. He’s still finding it hard to make the decisions he needs to make when the chips are down.
“He tends to really gravitate towards the safer choices. Often those can be very dangerous to make. Because if you make enough of those safe choices, at some point, your opponent is going to take over. If he has that mentality when he plays the match, it’s going to be hard to win games. So I feel like that’s where the difficulty really lies for Ding. Because he’s going to get chances against Gukesh. Gukesh is an extremely strong player. But he doesn’t have that experience yet to be not giving away chances at all.”