Liren Ding assures that he is finally “cured” of his chronic insomnia since he became world champion a year ago. But it is very unlikely that his form will be appropriate to face this Monday, with the white pieces, the number one, Magnus Carlsen, in the first round of the very tough Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger (Norway). It is a double round league with the Chinese, the Norwegian, the Americans Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, the Indian Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and the Frenchman of Iranian origin Alireza Firouzja. World champion Wenjun Ju leads the women’s tournament.
“I am physically well, cured of my illness. The unknown now is how much I will perform athletically; I am far from my best form. In principle, my goal in this tournament is to avoid the last place,” Ding said in a short conversation with EL PAÍS when he, accompanied by his mother, went to dinner. His appearance is clearly better than he did three months ago in Weissenhaus (Germany), where he lost ten games out of the thirteen he played in the 960 mode (the initial position of the pieces is drawn immediately before each game). A month and a half ago he played somewhat better in Karlsruhe (four points in ten games, and two draws with Carlsen), but still very far from that player whom the Norwegian, in conversation with this newspaper, described in December 2019: “Ding “He is, without a doubt, my possible rival for the most fearsome title.” Then the pandemic arrived, especially hard for the Chinese.
Ding acknowledges, in a very recent interview with the Indian newspaper The Indian Express, that Carlsen “is telling the truth” when he assures that the Asian’s conquest of the world title – after the Scandinavian’s resignation in 2022 – “has broken him permanently.” Ding admits that the weight of the crown was a big problem for months, but he believes that he has already overcome it. Spanish grandmaster Miguel Santos, Caruana’s coach, sums up the situation like this: “If Ding is fit, he is without a doubt one of the five best in the world at least.”
Although he does not speak about it clearly, it can be deduced that, as a first objective, Ding needs to feel that he is capable of defending the throne at the end of November against the Indian Dommaraju Gukesh, 17 years old, the youngest winner of the Candidates Tournament, ago. a month in Toronto (Canada). This is what emerges from this phrase: “At least I need to show my second best version.”
The opening day, starting at 5:00 p.m., will have these pairings: Ding – Carlsen, Praggnanandhaa – Firouzja and Caruana – Nakamura. And in the women’s tournament: Wenjun Ju (China) – Vaishali (India); Anna Muzychuk (Ukraine) – Tingjie Lei (China) and Cramling (Sweden) – Koneru (India). Norway Chess has an important distinguishing feature over other elite tournaments: every game that ends in a draw is followed by another, lightning, which decides the winner of the duel (if it is also a draw, the player with the black pieces).
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