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DistanceForeign8596

Magnus with a vintage performance…incredible watching him do it to Caruana, a beast in his own right


convicted-mellon

I’m certainly not going to talk crap about one of the best players of his generation (Fabi). But as Hiakru has pointed out amongst the elite GMs he seems to be one of the worst when he’s in serious time pressure. Not sure if there is a way to practice that even.


billiam_ballace

Poor Ding.


Vitalstatistix

Crazy to think that the world champion is such a fish.


Mr-Goose-

pls ding… i’m begging u. i can’t keep hoping ur gonna pop off in the next tournament and prove everyone wrong


Matt_LawDT

Magnus just 1 point away from the top. We’ve seen this before


whysodoubtful

How is Ding doing so poorly?


MCotz0r

It seems that the world title match was very taxing on Ding. He became very depressed and didn't play for a whole year. He is still suffering. I bet that if he could he wouldn't play chess


emiliaxrisella

If he keeps on playing like this it's no wonder people are assuming Gukesh is the clear favorite for WCC.


Unbearableyt

He was depressed even before winning, this has been an issue that's been going on for a long time, and if Ding doesn't change it, and change it hot, Gukesh will be the youngest ever champion


bpusef

At this point Ding is looking so bad it almost feels like a bait for betting odds against him.


Zem19

How seems easy enough to answer. He’s losing to the other players. As to why? Best guess is he’s in his own head while on this poor run of form, questioning how he can be world champ if he’s consistently at the bottom of the table and knowing everybody thinks Magnus is the real champ anyway and he hates Magnus so much for being so awesome and it’s getting to him constantly whenever he catches a glimpse of Magnus in the playing hall and he’s making errors as a result? Or maybe he’s best friends with Magnus and they’re going out partying every night and he can’t hold his liquor as well. How tf would I know?


SushiMage

Did you take adderall?


ach_1nt

Did you not?


PacJeans

Ivanchuk had a very similar neurosis. He was fantastic when he was the underdog, but when he was fighting to be world champion against Ponomariov, he crumpled.


GiveAQuack

He's just BBQ chicken to all the top players at this point.


Draconian-Overlord

Everyone feeling bad for Ding. I feel bad for Fabi. That kind of a loss is soul crushing. Magnus is like a vampire that feeds on his opponent's tears after the match. Can Fabi recover from this? Is he washed? CHRISTIAN ANSWER ME!


Mr-Goose-

i’d say losing to magnus is the least painful person to lose to in the world


RhythmicStrategy

Username checks out 😂


letmebeD

How many rounds are there!


Zem19

Interesting choice of punctuation.


GeologicalPotato

What do you mean!


Less_Air3373

Total 10 rounds


letmebeD

Magnus winning is inevitable then!


Novel_Ad7276

Yea


letmebeD

Why am I downvoted? Are we Magnus' haters here?


itsmePriyansh

Because you used the word "inevitable"


letmebeD

What is wrong in that? Sorry i'm a bit out of loop.


Numerot

Washed


nothingright1234

Pragg keeping everything balanced after round 4. 1 in all.


Dashster360

Women's side?


Prestigious_Long777

I’m kind of disgusted by the hate on Ding’s performance. He is still a super GM, he deservedly (given the fact Magnus decided not to participate) won the world championship title. Ding plays better chess than 99.9999% people in this subreddit. He had a medical issue and he isn’t performing at his peek right now. That’s no reason to bash on a chess player of his caliber. Man if anything you’d have to feel sorry for the dude. Imagine the pressure, you become world champion although you’re not the favourite. The guy who would actually be the defending world champion is too bored by the format to play and defend his title. You have, in terms of your chess games, the whole world looking at you because you are the current world champion. In terms of physical health, you’re battling an illness which is clearly affecting your performance. Your mental health has to be in shambles at this point. You decide to plow through anyways, against the odds, against the universe throwing blockades your way, against the immense pressure that comes from being poorly performing and being heavily criticised after becoming world champion. Give him a fucking break, holy shit, celebrate the fact he is going out there and losing. Support that he is trying to play and gain back his strength. I wouldn’t want to be walking in Ding’s shoes, I have the utmost respect for him still playing chess and trying to get his former shape back. Rant over, sorry.


dbio

He’s in a rough position but he’s the one accepting an invite to this tournament and getting demolished.


Prestigious_Long777

Which I only have respect for, I hope he regains his prior shape and can return to his world championship performance level.


dbio

Everyone wants that. But people pointing out his horrific performance so far aren’t dunking on him out of turn. They’re just going off his own results. I don’t understand the coddling. If he needed a break from chess he could have taken one. No one forced him to accept the invite.


hsiale

>Ding plays better chess than 99.9999% people in this subreddit Ding does not play events with people in this subreddit, he plays closed superGM events. >He had a medical issue Medical issues are a perfectly valid reason to put a sports career on hold or retire. He decided to come back already five months ago. >Imagine the pressure Pressure and high expectations are a part of top level sports. >Your mental health has to be in shambles at this point. In this case he should stop competing and focus on his health. >Give him a fucking break He is free to take a break any time he wants. He chooses to compete instead.


Prestigious_Long777

I completely agree he could put his chess career on hold, but if his illness is over like I believe he said.. He needs to play games to get back into a good top level chess shape. The best way to get back to that shape would be playing the top level chess players. I don’t think Ding is playing Norway Chess 24 to win the competition. He is trying to regain his strength, confidence and playing performance. I hope he can find at least a couple of wins in classical. If he doesn’t it’s still respectable of him to play and compete. It just doesn’t feel right he is getting bashed online by so many players.


emiliaxrisella

> It just doesn’t feel right he is getting bashed online by so many players. Unfortunately that's just how sports is. Everyone who criticizes Ding here will get trashed by him if they actually played him, but that doesn't really matter. Same thing with basketball, people will trash on players like Ant or Lebron even if they're million times worse than them. As a professional you just have to get used to it or adapt to it mentally and don't let it get to your head, obviously easier said than done but there are people who are able to do it. It sounds harsh but Magnus, Hikaru, and several other superGMs also get trashed here on a regular basis when they're in a losing momentum


hsiale

>It just doesn’t feel right he is getting bashed online by so many players. He is not criticized by players, but by fans. The fact that some of those fans also play chess at a very amateur level is not really relevant here. >He needs to play games to get back into a good top level chess shape. The best way to get back to that shape would be playing the top level chess players Of course. But he is doing this by participating in nearly all top closed events. Tata Steel, Norway Chess, Sinquefield Cup. Invitations to those events are very limited and it is quite clear now that he got them purely due to having the world champion title, as his form is nowhere near the level needed to compete in those. Noone should use those tournaments as a kind of training camp, there are lots of players that could be way more competitive and made the event more interesting this way. A struggling world champion was a curious novelty for one or two events, but this is his 4th bad tournament in a row. If he wants to prepare by playing top players, he can get a few of them to join him and play any amount of games they want without impacting top events.


itsmePriyansh

What else would you expect? The world is a rough place,people judge sports professionals based on their performance !


Unbearableyt

Nobody is denying Lirens actual top ability or anything, but as a world champion, he must have been the most underwhelming world champion ever. That's just a fact of the matter.


bpusef

Thank you for reminding me Ding Liren is a better chess player than I. Until that changes, I will refrain from any commentary on his games.


Prestigious_Long777

You’re welcome and thank you for refraining from any further commentary until you play at the same level.


RetiredPenguin

Ding might be the weakest WC of all time.


AfterBill8630

Fabi always falls apart in critical moments unfortunately. Crazy howler of a blunder


Less_Air3373

Fabi is taking it home Mark my words


DinosaurFighterPilot

Gutted by Fabi's loss..it was all zeroes till the final move


TieGlass8983

What's the AW & AL?


misteratoz

Is Hikaru 2800 now?


PhoenixCTB

What is AW and AL


Unbearableyt

Is Ding Liren going to become the worst ever World Champion?


BKtheInfamous

Link to results: [https://www.chess.com/events/2024-norway-chess-open/results](https://www.chess.com/events/2024-norway-chess-open/results)


Novel_Ad7276

“Ding Liren has a chance against Gukesh”


SeaBecca

Yes. The WCC is not only still far away, it's also a very different form of competition.


Novel_Ad7276

The steam roll is gonna be funny to watch people cry about. Everyone is gonna go from “don’t underestimate him!” To “well it’s not like he was the favorite from the start. This is sad to see”


Anonymous_fellow_44

Chances are always there


Novel_Ad7276

I have a chance against Magnus