 "D Gukesh vs Ding Liren: Chinese Grandmaster 'worried about losing badly' in World Chess Championship")
Reigning world champion Ding Liren is worried about “losing badly” to India’s D Gukesh in Singapore’s upcoming World Chess Championship match. Liren has not been in the best of form recently, having battled depression since winning the 2023 World Chess Championship in April last year.
Liren’s last win in any competition came during the Tata Steel Chess tournament held in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands in January 2024. He had beaten Gukesh in that tournament. Gukesh, on the other hand, is in fine run of form, having guided India to a historic gold medal at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest in September. Gukesh had qualified for the World Chess Championship by winning the 2024 Candidates tournament in Toronto earlier this year.
D Gukesh | Indian teenage prodigy from Chennai set for World Chess Championship clash with Ding Liren
“Clearly, I’ll be the underdog approaching this match…Gukesh is in top form…I hope I can become a totally different player and at least give him a fight to slow down his pace… to have some winning chances,” Ding had said in an interview on Take Take Take’s YouTube channel. The interview had been recorded after the last day of the Chess Olympiad in September.
“This is the longest I have gone without a classical win…. Maybe I’m not so eager to play…I don’t have the same ambitions to win… I’m worried about losing very badly (to Gukesh), hopefully it won’t happen," Ding, who was unbeaten for 100 matches between April 2017 and November 2018, added.
Also read | Anish Giri on D Gukesh vs Ding Liren World Championship match
Ding, however, is not losing hope altogether . He noted that he has the support of several other players and that Gukesh is yet to beat him in classical chess. Several chess grandmasters, including Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura have backed Gukesh to beat Liren.
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More Shorts“I’ve only lost to him (Gukesh) in freestyle chess, not in classical. So maybe I can give him a fight…I hope you will see the same me from the last world championship match. Although I’m playing so badly, still so many players love and support me, so maybe I need to show that I deserve this kind of support. If I continue to play so badly without any fighting spirit, I may not deserve it," stated the 32-year-old.
The World Chess Championship match will take place in Singapore from 25 November to 13 December. It will be a best-of-14 contest with tie-breaks if needed.
Ding also spoke briefly about his preparations for the match. “First I will have some rest to get away from chess, then I will go into a ‘rush mode’ because it will be very close to the match and we will start to prepare very hard and play some training games and find new ideas,” he said.
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