Chess: Magnus Carlsen calls Ding Liren ‘broken’ as teenage star Gukesh emerges

Magnus Carlsen fears that Ding Liren may have been “permanently broken” following the world champion’s poor performances at Wijk aan Zee in January and in the Freestyle event in Germany in March. Carlsen, who remains the world No 1 despite abdicating the title in 2023 after a 10-year reign, made his comments on a podcast last week in which he and David Howell also discussed the Candidates at Toronto and the surprise victory for India’s Gukesh Dommaraju, 17.

Ding won the crown one year ago this week by defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in a tense match which went to tie-breaks. Shortly afterwards he stopped playing for six months, citing lack of motivation plus an unspecified illness, which some sources said was anxiety or depression. At one stage he considered retirement.

After his two failures so far in 2024, Ding is scheduled to compete in at least three more tournaments before his title defence against Gukesh. At Norway Chess in Stavanger starting 27 May, he is in a six-player double-round tournament along with Carlsen and the USA’s world Nos 2 and 3, Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura. From August 17-30, he competes in the traditional Sinquefield Cup in St Louis, where Caruana will be his chief rival. In mid-September, Ding will lead China’s team at the 180-nation Olympiad in Budapest. His 14-game world championship series against Gukesh starts, probably in India, on 20 November.

If Stavanger, St Louis, and Budapest all go badly, could Ding decide to retire? It seems unlikely. If he turns up against Gukesh, he will pick up nearly €1m as the world championship loser, irrespective of the margin of defeat, while if he withdraws he would be replaced by Nakamura, who was ­officially placed second in Toronto. Ceding his place to an American would risk political repercussions in Beijing.

Carlsen revealed that he gave Gukesh a one-sentence word of advice before the Candidates: “Don’t go crazy, because others generally will.” In the event, Gukesh played conservatively against his three main rivals, scored best against the bottom half, and had a tournament performance rating (TPR) of 2847, which is higher than Carlsen’s current 2830.

In contrast, Nepomniachtchi twice drew tamely with the tailender Nijat Abasov, while Nakamura lost twice to Vidit Gujrathi.

GM Raymond Keene, who has written many books on world championship matches, has an interestingly negative perspective on Gukesh in his latest column in The Article: “His style is in the somewhat featureless mode of Carlsen. There seems to be no driving ambition for victory, as in the games of Alexander Alekhine, Mikhail Tal, or Garry Kasparov. Nor can I discern any grand strategic sweep, as evidenced by Mikhail Botvinnik or Tigran Petrosian. The forte of Gukesh appears to be the ability to avoid inferior positions, while keeping the ball in play and avoiding liquidation to draws. His impressive score with the black pieces is evidence of his counterpunching skills.”

International chess could be heading for an Indian era to match the Soviet Union’s dominance of the late 20th century. Gukesh’s victory has the potential to spark a boom in a nation where, in its Chennai and Tamil Nadu heartland, the indoor game is already a credible rival to cricket.

When he arrived back in Chennai at 3am after the long flight home from Canada, hundreds of fans gathered at the airport as he was garlanded and gave an impromptu press conference. Congratulations came from India’s prime minister, Narendra Modi, and from the cricketer Sachin Tendulkar.

Gukesh has the personality and looks set to become a media hero. Articulate and fluent, he delivered the right soundbites to an expectant public when he said: “Wherever I play, the goal is to be focused and to win the match. Ding is a strong player, but I have full belief that I can beat him. I will prepare well for him.”

There is a potential showdown ahead in September at the Budapest Olympiad where India’s young team, led by Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa Rameshbabu and Vidit, will vie for favouritism with the US quartet of Caruana, Nakamura, Wesley So and Leinier Dominguez. Russia; which as the USSR dominated chess in the second half of the 20th century, will be absent, its teams banned by Fide due to the invasion of Ukraine.

At age nine, England’s youngest chess hope, Bodhana Sivanandan, set another record on Sunday, when the Harrow primary school pupil achieved her first women’s international master norm with 4.5/9 at the European Women’s Championship in Rhodes, Greece. Her TPR was 2265 against the minimum required of 2250 and although she lost in round 10, the nine-round norm remains valid. Another two norms are needed for the WIM title.

It was difficult, as almost all her opponents were higher rated. Her best game was in round two, when she cleverly converted a passed pawn against a strong Armenian.

Round four was a tough marathon 139-move loss to the England No 1, Jovanka Houska, where the decisive error came at move 93 – but then Sivavandan rallied again, and played solidly to remain unbeaten for the next four rounds.

At IM/WIM level and higher, only Argentina’s Faustino Oro, the “chess Messi”, has also achieved a title norm at nine. Oro was then a month before his 10th birthday, while the English girl only turned nine in March. In Fide’s just published May rating list, Sivanandan is ranked the world No 1 nine-year-old. Her 2138 rating is higher than all the boys.

However, Russia’s Roman Shogdzhiev, who at age eight defeated five grandmasters in the 2023 World Rapid and Blitz, already has a 2194 Fide blitz rating (Sivanandan is second on 2185). His 11/11 in the world under-10 blitz championship last weekend is yet to be rated. Shogdzhiev’s classical rating is only 2013, but that will surely jump with more results, and he looks like Sivanandan’s rival.

3918: 1...h5+! 2 Kxh5 Ra8! (threat Rh8+ and Rh4 mate) 3 Kg4 Rh8 4 g3 Rh2! 5 Rh1 R8xh3 and Kasparov won with his extra knight. Stockfish prefers 1...h5+ 2 Kxh5 Ne5! as even stronger: 3 Rbc1 Ra8 4 Rc8 Rxc8 5 Bxc8 Rxg2 (threat Rh2+ mating) 6 Kh4 Rg8! (threat Rh8 mate) 7 Kh3 Rxc8 and wins.