Carlsen Fears Ding Is 'Permanently Broken', Hails Gukesh After Candidates Win
GM Magnus Carlsen says he fears that reigning World Champion Ding Liren could be 'permanently broken' and fail to recover after his world championship victory. At the same time he praised the 17-year-old Candidates Tournament winner GM Gukesh Dommaraju.
The former world champion appeared in a new episode of the podcast Sjakksnakk ("Chess Chat"), run by his Norwegian friends Askild Bryn and Odin Blikra Vea, which was released in English today. Also a guest on the episode was Chess.com commentator GM David Howell.
New episode (IN ENGLISH) relased today! @MagnusCarlsen and @DavidHowellGM give their unfiltered opinions about the 2024 Candidates. #Chess
— Sjakksnakk (@sjakksnakk) April 29, 2024
Spotify:https://t.co/iToVLnVEWO
Apple Podcasts:https://t.co/A8AyUIq8mc pic.twitter.com/TCTkOeaCa2
It's hardly a surprise that the main topic of discussion was what took place in Toronto, the Canadian city that saw Indian 17-year-old Gukesh surprisingly qualify for a World Championship match.
Gukesh's opponent will be the reigning champion Ding, who has been under heavy scrutiny from the chess world since winning the title due to his low activity level and poor results. Carlsen says he is unsure whether the former world number two will actually be able to return to his peak from 2019.
"The question is whether he is sort of permanently broken from the last world championship that he played. I'm not sure, but I think there is a possibility that he could be," said Carlsen.
The question is whether he is sort of permanently broken from the last world championship that he played. I'm not sure, but I think there is a possibility that he could be.
—Magnus Carlsen
Ding took half a year off from chess after his eighth place in the Superbet Chess Classic just after the 2023 world championship match, later revealing to Chess.com that he had suffered from undisclosed health issues. He has admitted to struggling with motivation, and hinted at considering retirement.
His return in Tata Steel Chess in January saw a performance far below his usual level, followed by a disaster in the Freestyle Chess G.O.A.T Challenge in February, where he shockingly didn't win a single game, losing 10 out of 13 games.
Magnus Carlsen states that Ding Liren might be broken after winning the classical World Champion title. Listen to the full episode of SjakkSnakk on Spotify or your preferred podcast platform. ♟️ pic.twitter.com/kQpp1B0IRn
— Sjakksnakk (@sjakksnakk) April 29, 2024
Asked to elaborate on the Ding statement, Carlsen said:
"I think there is a chance that he is not going to come back to the same level that he was at his peak around 2018-2019. And I think taking time off has done him some good after the world championship match, but it clearly hasn't been enough quite yet. I hope he will come back, but it's not a foregone conclusion at all that we will ever see him playing at that level again."
I think there is a chance that Ding is not going to come back to the same level that he was at his peak around 2018-2019. Taking time off has done him some good, but it clearly hasn't been enough quite yet.
—Magnus Carlsen
Carlsen himself abdicated his world championship title, saying he was fed up with the classical format, which requires months of preparations for one opponent, in addition to recovery time after three weeks of coping with the intense pressure of a 14-game match.
"What has happened to Ding after the world championship match should make people, general chess fans, as well as other professionals, realize how tough these events actually are. Because we're now a year removed from his world championship and there aren't a lot of signs that he's recovered from that."
What has happened to Ding after the World Championship match should make people, general chess fans, as well as other professionals, realize how tough these events actually are.
—Magnus Carlsen
The former world champion says he "really hopes" that the chess world will see the world champion back in shape.
"I think if he's able to show that kind of level that he's had in the past he is probably going to be the favorite [in the match], but as it is, I'm not sure," Carlsen added.
Now Gukesh could face a 'broken' Ding, similar to Carlsen's world championship match in 2013 against GM Viswanathan Anand, whom he characterized as "vulnerable" and "past his peak."
"All of a sudden I realized that I'm not playing against Superman. I'm playing against an amazingly strong player, but who is somewhat past his peak. And that calmed me down. And for the other matches as well, I've realized that I'm playing against extremely flawed, but very strong, human beings."
"At the moment, that is probably what we should expect from Ding. I'm hoping that we're going to see something before that which suggests that he could be at least 90 percent of what he was when he was at his best around 2019."
Carlsen has previously spoken highly of Ding's challenger Gukesh, and he once again hails the teenager who is the youngest ever Candidates winner and can become the youngest undisputed world champion.
"First of all, he's a wonderful guy, very quiet, very humble, and he has a great curiosity when it comes to everything about chess," Carlsen said.
He's a wonderful guy, very quiet, very humble and he has a great curiosity when it comes to everything about chess.
—Carlsen on Gukesh
"It's usually a staple of some of the greatest players ever, that they sort of succeed at the highest level a little bit... they obviously show promise at an early age, but then they succeed at the highest level a little bit before people generally expect that. So it's been an amazing story and I'm sure he is feeling all kinds of excited now."
He once again confirmed that he had a conversation with Gukesh before the Candidates, limiting his advice to just, 'don't go crazy, because others generally will.'
"I'm not sure if that was helpful. I would like to take exactly 0.00 percent credit for his success and I didn't expect him to do this either, but I'm really, really happy for him."
Ding's reaction to @DGukesh winning the Candidates pic.twitter.com/HvAmCGhh2M
— Chess.com (@chesscom) April 22, 2024
The former world champion also mentioned one of his first encounters with Gukesh, that took place during the 2021 Champions Chess Tour. That was a game he played "too casually" in the opening, leading to a worse position with White.
"What was noticeable about Gukesh, even compared to other young stars, was that he was playing extremely ambitious chess and that he was playing the same way against everybody. Like really powerful, ambitious chess."
"When you don't have quite enough chess strength to sort of pull that off, it can often be detrimental to your score. You've seen in certain tournaments that he just falls apart because he cannot quite put it together, like he's trying to do a lot of things a little bit too much. Eventually when that style starts to click, then you can see what kind of results it would give."
"But it was really noticeable back then that he had a style which you could see that he could become something really special. And yeah, I'm surprised that it took him this short a time to become a world championship challenger. Obviously that's a surprise to most people, but he always had that potential of being up there," Carlsen said.
You can listen to the full episode with Carlsen and Howell discussing the Candidates below.
Tarjei J. Svensen is a Norwegian chess journalist who worked for some of the country's biggest media outlets and appeared on several national TV broadcasts. Between 2015 and 2019, he ran his chess website mattogpatt.no, covering chess news in Norwegian and partly in English.
In 2020, he was hired by Chess24 to cover chess news, eventually moving to Chess.com as a full-time chess journalist in 2023. He is also known for his extensive coverage of chess news on his X/Twitter account.
