• Without Carlsen Much more than a chess World Cup: the Zen master against the Russian Empire

Ding Liren is not alone in Astana, as usual, but he would still do better. The Chinese grandmaster has arrived at the World Cup in Kazakhstan accompanied by his own demons. After the first game against Ian Nepomniachtchi, draws, the world title contender confessed the unspeakable in elite sport, that he felt "depressed" and subjected to "too much pressure". An absolute disaster in the most mental sport that exists. In the second game, with White, he collapsed and lost. There are 12 chances left to equalize, but it looks bad for him.


"I'm not happy; I'm a little depressed. During the game, I felt a flow of inconsistency. In the first half I couldn't concentrate and think about chess. My mind was full of memories and feelings. I couldn't calculate because of the pressure of the game." It was not a bluff, as was seen in the second game. It is known that last year he broke up with his girlfriend, but later he has assured that he had a good friend. The problem, at the very least, is not only sentimental. The long periods of isolation he endured during the pandemic have taken their toll.


The truth is that Ding Liren has arrived in Astana with an assistant, the Romanian (formerly Hungarian) Richard Rapport. He has signed him to try to take advantage of his creativity. In fact, in Monday's game, the fourth move of the Chinese candidate was a new move, an experiment that did not go well. "The idea was good, but the game was a disaster," he admitted.


"I remember when Kramnik asked me to invent new plays, but they were good," recalled Spaniard Miguel Illescas on Twitter. Good or not, when the Chinese stopped playing the prepared and had to improvise, it was seen that his mental state was not adequate for a championship of the most demanding level.


The Russian grandmaster, who had some chance to win in the first game, did not miss his second chance. This Tuesday will take place the first day of rest, which will give some quarters to Ding. He must try to repeat his comeback from the last Candidates tournament. In Madrid, he also started badly and then made an excellent end of the tournament, enough to achieve second place, which after the resignation of Magnus Carlsen now allows him to face a unique opportunity to proclaim himself world champion.


In front of him not only has a chess player as good as him. Nepo is said to have access to the Zhores supercomputer, belonging to the Skolkovo Institute of Technology. Hence Ding's eagerness to play little-known lines, which the Russian has hardly been able to prepare. In modern chess it is common among grandmasters without access to computer equipment of that power to resort to online services, which allow renting the use of advanced computers to test their ideas before trusting them in real games.


The absent champion


To all this, Carlsen has not been too interested in the duel between Nepo and Ding. Their disdain seems even excessive. "I don't care who wins," he said. Nor does he have plans to follow the games very closely. "I probably will, but I don't think it will change my routines. Then I'll see them, that's for sure," he said as someone who does not watch a football game and is content to look for the repetitions of the goals.


It is not without his poetic side that in his last game as world champion, the Norwegian lost against the American Hikaru Nakamura due to an oversight with his mouse. An error in handling, common in rapid chess, caused him to lose his queen and therefore the game.


Kazakhstan does not play with mice and mistakes are not simple accidents. That's why they hurt more and it's much harder to recover later. The only good news for Ding Liren is that the World Cup has just started and there is more time to come back.

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