A few hours before world champion Ding Liren was to find himself face to face at two separate events with D Gukesh, the 18-year-old challenger for his crown at this year’s World Championship, the Chinese grandmaster attended a special event with Singapore’s young chess talents.
When Ding reached there, he was taken aback. Many of the kids had brought along personalised letters for him in Chinese, some running into two pages.
“The fans here gave me a lot of gifts, including hand-written letters,” said the Chinese GM with a smile. “In China too, many players recorded a video to cheer me up. They gave me some energy.”
These were the kind of pick-me-ups the world champion needed. Ding has spent months since he became world champion in April last year grappling with issues off the board. He’s publicly spoken out about being depressed. He’s gone through a wretched run of form at events like the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, struggling to convert winning positions and clutching only at draws. Magnus Carlsen, the man whose crown Ding inherited after a forfeit from the Norwegian, has said that Ding is still recovering from winning the world championship.
Ding revealed that he spent Friday analysing his games over the past year, and they painted a grim picture.
“Yesterday, I reviewed my games from recent times and saw that the quality of games that I played was low. My fighting spirit was not that high. I made many short draws and I also drew in much better positions. I don’t know what the exact reasons are. I was far from my peak performance. (In the coming days) I intend to review some of my best games to regain some inspiration and see how I can beat such strong players. I need to regain that kind of confidence and fighting spirit to perform better,” said Ding.
But he struck a hopeful note at the press conference.
“Going into the last World Chess Championship, I was very nervous. But this time, I feel at peace. A lot of energy. Hope we can put up many exciting matches like last time,” said the Chinese champion.
The teenager who will sit across the board from Ding over the next three weeks looked remarkably calm, considering the weight of the occasion.
“The World Chess Championship is a very special event. There are certainly some nerves. But I feel good about it. I’m eager to start playing,” said Gukesh. “Won’t say I’m super calm. This is a big event, I’m super excited. I’m sure I will be nervous (when the event starts). But I can handle any kind of nerves. Even if my heart is beating fast and I am nervous, I know I can handle that. I am confident in my skills. I don’t have anything to worry about.”
The drawing of lots has concluded:
🇮🇳 Gukesh D plays White in game 1; 🇨🇳 Ding Liren plays Black! #DingGukeshThe action at the FIDE World Championship, presented by Google, starts on November 25 with the first game. pic.twitter.com/EDSbbjyWRX
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) November 23, 2024
Opening gambit
Plenty of top grandmasters have said that the fate of this world championship will be decided by how the initial games pan out, and how Ding was feeling.
“For me, it’s pretty clear who I am facing. Ding has been one of the best players in the world for over a decade. My job is pretty clear: go to every game as the best version of myself and play the best moves in position. Play good chess, play in the right spirit. If I am doing the right things, no matter what version sits in front of me — his recent form dip or whether he’s at his best – it doesn’t really matter to me. If I am doing the right things, I will have all the chances in the world,” said a self-assured-looking Gukesh.
The press conference was lacking in dramatic flourish. No cards were revealed. Both players were understandably tight-lipped about their teams. No salvos were fired at the opponent. FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich did try to hype up the battle later in the day as a battle between the ‘Indian tiger and the Chinese dragon’. At the opening ceremony, Gukesh drew white for the first game.
Carlsen’s shadow has also been conspicuous. The former world champion is in Singapore playing in a freestyle chess event. Both players were asked more than once about his comments about not having the appetite to put himself through the grind needed to compete in a match of the stature of the World Chess Championship.
Gukesh, though, dismissed such talk.
“Where Magnus and I come from is very different, because Magnus has been doing this for more than 10 years. This is my first! All new for me. So it was easy to be excited about this and enjoy the process compared to Magnus. I love chess,” he said before adding: “I don’t have much of a personal life. My whole life revolves around chess. My only job is to play chess.”
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