Reigning world champion Ding Liren is worried about ‘losing badly’ against India’s D Gukesh in the upcoming World Chess Championship match in Singapore. Liren has not been in the best of form lately, having battled depression since winning the 2023 World Chess Championship in April last year.

Liren’s last victory in any competition came in the Tata Steel Chess tournament held in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands in January 2024. He had defeated Gukesh in that tournament. Gukesh, on the other hand, is in fine form, having guided India to a historic gold medal at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest in September. Gukesh had qualified for the World Chess Championship by winning the 2024 Candidates Tournament in Toronto earlier this year.

D Gukesh |
Indian teenage prodigy from Chennai ready for World Chess Championship clash with Ding Liren

“Obviously I’ll be the underdog heading into this match… Gukesh is in great shape… Hopefully I can become a totally different player and at least give him a fight to slow down his pace.. .to have a chance of winning,” Ding said. » said during an interview on Take Take Take’s YouTube channel. The interview was recorded at the end of the final day of the Chess Olympiad in September.

“This is the longest time I have gone without a classic victory…. Maybe I don’t want to play so much… I don’t have the same ambitions to win… I’m afraid of losing very badly (against Gukesh), I hope that won’t happen”, Ding , undefeated for 100 matches between April 2017 and November 2018, added.

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Ding, however,
he doesn’t completely lose hope. He noted that he had the support of several other players and that Gukesh had not yet beaten him in classical chess. Several chess grandmasters, including
Magnus Carlsen And
Hikaru Nakamura backed Gukesh to beat Liren.

“I only lost to him (Gukesh) in free chess, not in classical. So maybe I can give him a fight… I hope you see the same thing as in the last world championship match. Even though I play so bad, so many players love me and support me, so maybe I need to show that I deserve that kind of support. If I continue to play so badly without any fighting spirit, I might not deserve it,” the 32-year-old said.

The World Chess Championship match will be held in Singapore from November 25 to December 13. This will be a best-of-14 competition with tie-breaks if necessary.

Ding also spoke briefly about his preparations for the match. “I will first rest a little to get away from the failures, then I will go into rush mode because the match will be very close and we will start preparing very hard, playing some practice matches and find new ideas,” he said.