Never had a champion given such a poor image. The exhausting effort that Liren Ding, 32, had to make to become world champion in May 2023, shortly after breaking up with his girlfriend, led to serious health problems. But the Chinese, then winner of the Russian Ian Niepómniashi in an electrifying tiebreaker, sees himself capable of achieving another feat: stopping the push of the prodigious Indian Dommaraju Gukesh, 18 years old. The duel in Singapore, the best of fourteen games starting this Monday, pits two Asians against each other for the first time, with 2.4 million euros in prizes.
“A year and a half ago I was very nervous because it was my first World Championship [en Astaná, Kazajistán]. But now I feel at peace, with a lot of energy. “It is my first time in Singapore, a welcoming country where I have received many gifts and a very warm welcome from a crowd of children today,” Ding said this Saturday during the opening press conference. His voice sounded firm, like that of a self-confident person.
But more than reasonable doubts arise as to whether it was not an artificial pose when this supposed nirvana is compared with what the author of these lines, two meters away from Ding for more than three hours, saw on September 15 during the Spain-China match. of the Chess Olympiad in Budapest. The world champion coughed frequently, his hands trembled and he also made some faint sounds – a mixture of small belches and suppressed coughs – clearly audible in the deathly silence of the gaming room. The most benign interpretation of these symptoms would be that they were side effects of the medication he started taking more than a year ago for his severe sleeping problems.
Even if this were the case, and Ding was already cured from a medical point of view, it can be taken as almost certain that his self-confidence is very low: for a year and a half he has played little and poorly (he has dropped to 23rd place in the world), well below of his immense talent. And of the enormous strength that he exhibited in December 2019 during the London Classic tournament, when the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, then champion and still today number oneundisputed, he told Morning Express: “Of all the possible challengers I may have, Ding is clearly the one I fear the most.”
But the pandemic was terrible for the Asian, a very sensitive and cultured person – he speaks very fluently about philosophy, literature, cinema, sports… – who had to suffer long quarantines in China and Russia (before and after the 2020 Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg), the impossibility of traveling and terrible schedules (early morning in China) to play elite tournaments online. Even so, he was able to finish 2nd in the 2022 Madrid Candidates Tournament despite starting with one defeat and seven draws, and, thanks to Carlsen’s resignation from the throne, he played and won the duel against Niepómniashi, whose highest point Control of his emotions has always been weak, especially after a defeat.
On the contrary, Gukesh not only amazes with his wonderful game, but even more so with his mettle in front of the board, no matter how great the tension and despite his age. Although in private conversations he shows a certain general culture and a clear interest in very specific topics – for example, the psychological preparation of Rafa Nadal and the influence on him of his uncle Toni, who is very fond of chess – the Indian prodigy sometimes reminds us of a robot programmed for one purpose: to be world chess champion. His statements are usually a compendium of politically correct clichés: “Of course I’m a little nervous, but I feel good. I just want to do my best and see what happens. It is an honor and a privilege to represent my country in a World Cup. I am clear that I am facing Ding, one of the best in the last decade. And also that I must give my best version in each game,” he said during the same press conference.
However, it is his first duel for the title and he has the pressure of a country with some 1.4 billion inhabitants where chess is a national passion (there are five Indians in the top twenty of the ranking, Gukesh is now 5th) thanks to the enormous fame of the five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand; In addition, the balance between Gukesh and Ding so far in the classical form of chess records a victory for the Chinese and a draw. Since there is no reason to doubt that Gukesh is, despite everything, a human being, it is to be expected that at some point he will doubt or tremble. But luck decided this Saturday that he would lead the white pieces in the first round (it’s like having the serve in tennis), which greatly limits the chances that Ding will start with a balsamic and energizing victory that will boost his self-esteem.
Potentially, this duel can be attractive to about 3.5 billion people if all the Chinese, Indians and people interested in chess in the entire world are added (about 600 million, according to the polling company YouGov). The president of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), which encompasses 201 countries, since 2018 is the Russian Arkady Dvorkovich, who was previously deputy prime minister under President Dimitri Medvedev, economic advisor to Vladimir Putin and director of the World Cup. Russia in 2018.In an international context where the mere fact of being Russian is a hindrance to obtaining sponsorships, Dvorkovich (against the invasion of Ukraine) boasted this Saturday of having managed to get Google to be one of the sponsors of the World Cup in Singapore, which could generate a Huge flow of chess on social networks.
But such an explosion will only happen if Ding shows good form and the duel is dominated by emotion. His statements this Saturday are very different from what he said just three weeks ago: “I’m afraid of losing badly.” Whether that change of mood is real or a pose could be the key for the champion to be himself again.
