China’s Ding Liren during the 14th game of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2024 against India’s D Gukesh, in Singapore, Thursday, Dec. 12, 2024. (FIDE/Eng Chin An via PTI Photo)
Like any mass-rumoured, self-respecting broken-hearted or hung-over (by chess) person, GM Ding Liren too is supposed to have sought out a bunch of fellow players to play a few trippy team games of ‘Bughouse chess’, soon after he lost the World Championship title to D Gukesh.
According to Dutch GM Benjamin Bok, Ding who ceded his crown to the Indian was spotted soon after the title-fight ended, on chess.com, playing the team variat of chess.
Bughouse chess is considered to cater to both chess hangovers and heartbreaks, where four players firm teams of two and play on two boards. Most of chess rules apply, but captured pieces in bughouse are passed to the teammate on the other board, who can avail of them on their own board. Results are clinched by checkmate or timed out.
Ding Liren lost the World Chess Championship match in a heartbreaking final round just 4 hours ago.
…and he’s online playing bughouse chess already 😂 talk about a bounce back! pic.twitter.com/wIo5ar3awb
— Chess.com (@chesscom) December 12, 2024
By 2315 IST, a twitter watcher, noted that Ding had finished 22 games of bughouse, where the capture rules lend it names like Siamese Chess, Swap Chess, and Exchange Chess. It is discussional chess where partners can tag team to capture enemy pieces and checkmate opponents.
In one of the snap 3 minute games, Ding and IndianCuisineMaster, a registered British player took on Chinese YouShallRose and Momoko105.
While it was speculated that Ding was glad to be relieved of the burden of world champ – hugely believable – others opined that seeking recourse in the flippy bughouse chess, could be anything from being angry, hurting to completely relaxed. Most however wanted the ‘Ding Chilling’ entrencged trope to continue, and guessed that Chefshouse was simply relaxing after a torturous three weeks that ended in a more than an “Oopsie Daisies” blunder.
Speculation is rife over whether Ding would continue in classical and just how treacherous his path is to securing qualification for the next cycle of Candidates.
Meanwhile news is awaited on whether D Gukesh will actually bungee jump as earlier mentioned post his historic title, after it was reported he is actually scared of heights. Having pocketed a cool USD 1.3 million (approx ₹11.03 crore), after the title, Gukesh can float a few feet above ground, and that much thrill is enough for a year, some would say.
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