Sports / Tue, 04 Jun 2024 The Indian Express

Norway Chess: Ding Liren manages to hold Praggnanandhaa to draw as chess world rallies around world champion

World champion Ding Liren managed to halt his sequence of defeats at the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger on Monday, managing to get a draw against India’s 18-year-old Praggnanandhaa in Round 7 after four consecutive defeats in previous rounds. Ding Liren contemplates his next move during the World Chess Championship battle last year. (PHOTO: Stev Bonhage via FIDE)Ding Liren contemplates his next move during the World Chess Championship battle last year. (PHOTO: Stev Bonhage via FIDE)“I am very concerned for Ding Liren. This is probably the worst decline of any reigning World Champion in history,” she tweeted.

World champion Ding Liren managed to halt his sequence of defeats at the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger on Monday, managing to get a draw against India’s 18-year-old Praggnanandhaa in Round 7 after four consecutive defeats in previous rounds. In the Armageddon battle that followed the draw, however, Praggnanandhaa managed to defeat Ding.

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While the draw was progress in itself for Ding, the result was painful since he was winning at some stage, but his lack of confidence ensured he ended up losing.

Even Praggnanandhaa has now beaten the World No.1 (Magnus Carlsen) and World No.2 in the same event in the classical format. (Norway Chess/Stev Bonhage)

was unhappy with the way he won the game.

“Things worked out for me. I just have to forget today. It was a very bad result. It’s a long tournament and you will get tired, but I don’t really feel too much tiredness at the moment. It was just a very bad result,” the Indian prodigy assessed after the result to Norway’s TV2.

Ahead of the game against Praggnanandhaa, a visibly downcast Ding was asked by the local broadcast partner TV 2 how frustrating it was to not be able to play the level of chess that he is capable of playing.

“I’m very sad to have four defeats in a row. I didn’t feel very well during the games which is why I played badly,” he confessed.

Also Read | Mate-in-2: Ding Liren blunders against Magnus Carlsen to lose 4th game in row at Norway Chess

In another interview right afterwards as he was making his way to the playing hall before the game began, when asked how he was enjoying Stavanger so far, he could only manage a response that he was looking forward to the second rest day of the tournament on Wednesday.

Ding had opened up about his depression in an interview with a German newspaper TAZ earlier this year. “I had some problems (after becoming world champion). I was exhausted, but still couldn’t sleep very well. That led to depression. I was treated in a clinic twice. Fortunately, things are slowly getting better. Chess is mentally exhausting — and if you can’t sleep well, that’s fatal. At least I was able to reduce the number of tablets I took from four a day to one now.”

Chess legend Susan Polgar weighed in on the chatter about Ding’s issues ahead of the upcoming world chess championship against India’s 18-year-old Gukesh.

Ding Liren contemplates his next move during the World Chess Championship battle last year. (PHOTO: Stev Bonhage via FIDE)

“I am very concerned for Ding Liren. He is not the same player he used to be, not even close. He seems to lack self confidence, feel for positions, and sharpness, etc. This is probably the worst decline of any reigning World Champion in history,” she tweeted. “He still has time to turn things around before his match with Gukesh. But this is a five alarm emergency! He needs to put together a team that can help him fix his mental, emotional, and self confidence problems immediately before it is too late. He is one of the nicest chess players and the fans deserve a good match!”

While he was playing against Pragg, members from the fraternity rallied around Ding, who has endured a wretched run of form since becoming world champion last year.

Anna Muzychuk, who currently leads the women’s Norway Chess event, made it a point to mention Ding during a visit to the confessional booth during her own game on Monday. She then also spoke extensively about the challenges of being a chess player in interviews after her game.

“I’d like to support Ding, because we chess players from time to time all go through difficult periods. Unfortunately, this time, Ding’s going through this. I wish to support him and wish he comes back to his best chess because I believe it’s the best to compete when everybody is on their best to determine the winner. I remember being in similar situations and other players came to support me and it was precious. Let’s do the same for Ding,” she said.

Praggnanandhaa faces Magnus Carlsen on Tuesday in the reverse fixture after defeating him for the first time in classical chess last time around in the tournament a few days back. While Carlsen still leads the standings, Pragg is third. Meanwhile, Vaishali was handed her second consecutive defeat in the women’s section to compatriot Humpy Koneru to slip down to third spot behind Muzychuk and world champion Ju Wenjun.