 "Carlsen expects Ding to 'crumble' after blunder against Gukesh, says Game 11 was not 'worthy of a World Championship'")
It was only recently that world No 1 Magnus Carlsen had stated that India’s D Gukesh "was no longer a favourite" in the FIDE World Chess Championship. The Norwegian chess icon, a five-time world champion himself, had made the statement on Friday, 6 December after the 18-year-old Indian Grandmaster played out a sixth consecutive draw with reigning champion Ding Liren and remained level on points with the Chinese Grandmaster. The two players would then play out a draw the following day as well, shaking hands after 36 moves.
After Gukesh’s convincing victory in 29 moves in Game 11 on Sunday, however, Carlsen had a change of heart and chose to direct barbs towards the Chinese Grandmaster, who had consumed an hour for his first five moves and served the game to his opponent on a silver platter with a blunder in his 29th move .
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Analysing the Game on the Take Take Take app, Carlsen expected the reigning world champion to “crumble” in the last three Classical games of the World Championship.
“We’ll see if Ding has any fight in him. Will Ding crumble now? I think that’s most likely the most likely scenario. Whether he will put any pressure on Gukesh, whatsoever? Hard to say. Kinda doubt it. Gukesh has been very good at neutralising Ding with black pieces.
“Maybe Ding will put in a shift in the two white games remaining. But I am not optimistic on his behalf,” Carlsen said in the video that was posted by the app’s official YouTube channel on Sunday evening.
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Carlsen, who had reigned as world champion for a decade after defeating Indian legend Viswanathan Anand in 2013, added that it was a “terrible performance” from Ding on Sunday, and that Game 11 was “not worthy of a World Championship”.
“It’s all confusing, baffling, confounding. I don’t know what to say… Overall we have seen Ding is very vulnerable. But this game is as bad from Ding as we have seen all year. This was a terrible performance. This was dreadful.”
“This was kind of ridiculous in game 11 of the world championship. Game 11 was as bad as we have. This was not worthy of a World Championship. It should be a little bit harder than it was today. But it was quite the spectacle,” Carlsen added.
Also Read | D Gukesh says Game 11 against Ding Liren could have ’easily gone the other way'
Gukesh will aim to double his lead over Ding when he faces the Chinese GM in Game 12 on Monday . Should he emerge victorious ahead of the final ‘Rest Day’ on Tuesday, Gukesh will simply need a draw in the last two games to become the youngest chess world champion, breaking the legendary Garry Kasparov’s record in the process.
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