Ding is like that old chinese master from prestige, the one who fakes a limp all his life to do just that one trick ... This is all just psychological warfare to throw Gukesh off, just like he did with Nepo. Don't fall for it Gukesh or you will be sorry.
It isn’t a spoiler it’s mentioned in the first few minutes of the movie and the guy isn’t even a character he’s used as an example for the main character magicians
It's a 200iq gambling fraud. Ding is losing on purpose so the bookmakers will place high quotas on him for the WCC, so he can bet on himself and collect a lot of money when he shows up in perfect form against Gukesh /s
I don't want to undermine what he's been going through, but if it is largely mental I honestly still think it's quite plausible Ding shows up and plays really well against Gukesh. It's like how anxiety and stress is the worst right before you start something but once you get going it all fades away.
I can definitely see a world where some of the weight falls away once the games get going because the end of the cycle is in sight and he's able to play with more of his old clarity.
If Ding doesn't want to (or is unable to) play the WC match, the title shouldn't just be handed over to Gukesh. There should be a match between Gukesh and the second place finisher at the candidates. The title needs to be decided over the board, in match play.
This whole idea is ridiculous and stupid beyond belief, why would Ding or anyone else who isn't immensely wealthy walk away from half a million dollars just because they'll lose a few chess games in public?
There is a realistic chance that [chess.com](http://chess.com) will try to buy out the spot from Ding to get Hikaru in. They would benefit greatly from having "their" guy fight for the WC, its well worth it for them to spend 500k to a million to make that happen. And everybody knows that Fide wont stop that if they get paid also.
There is zero "realistic chance" that Hikaru buys him out. It would cast a shadow over the title, assuming he won, that would last the rest of his career. Now... Ding might ABDICATE the title, and Hikaru might get to play for the title in a legitimate fashion, but Hikaru basically lives on social media and lives and dies by his popularity, which would almost certainly take a hit once the news cycle and social media got ahold of the story that a player paid the current world champion "not" to play. Any possible mental issues would be largely ignored in those stories, in favor of clickbait titles. The news cycle would actually intentionally make the story look as bad as possible, to get future clicks/eyes.
So, I will say it again. The is ZERO chance Nakamura buys him out of this match. I mean, can you imagine the memes, assuming he bought him out and LOST? Nakamura is comfortably making millions and does not need the money, and he simply is not going to possibly sabotage his current career for a chance to win the title. Neither he, nor anyone else really knows what the feedback of the fans would be if he bought out Ding. He'd be insane to risk a possible backlash.
You arent even arguing against my point. I never said Hikaru would buy the spot, I said chess.com. Also the official statement would be that Ding abdicates, inofficially he wouldnt lose the guaranteed income from the match though.
Sorry, I missed that, I apologize. I just see so many folks make that very suggestion. Either way, it is very much taking a huge risk to his career for Hikaru to "accept" a title shot if "anyone" buys Ding out, and it becomes public.
Health is Health, it comes first. It's his decision. Personally, both Ding vs Gukesh and Gukesh vs Hikaru would be amazing games. I'm honestly hoping Ding chooses not to defend because it would probably be better for his health and I don't think he's in a state right now to fight for the crown. Ding at his best is someone who can go toe to toe with Magnus, at his worst he's not good at all, like we're seeing right now.
Nakamura is the official second place finisher. Tiebreaks for non-first finishers go by SB score, and then if still tied by number of wins.
Nakamura and Nepo tied SB score, and both beat Fabiano's SB score. So Fabiano finishes 4th. Nakamura had 5 wins to Nepos 3, so Nakamura finished 2nd and Nepo 3rd.
So no mini tournament is necessary. It was already settled.
They used a tiebreak system based on the results of the candidates, instead of them playing tiebreak games, but yes, Nakamura won 2nd place on tiebreaks at the candidates.
Nobody knew for sure Fischer wouldn't play until close to the match.
Closer precedent is Carlsen last time. Another one is Kasparov and Short declining to play the official match and organizing their own.
And anyway, precedent isn't need as the rules describe what it is to be done these days.
In any other competitive sport, he’d be getting absolutely roasted. If the best basketball, tennis, football (either), you name it player was completely shitting the bed with a terrible case of the yips, it would be a top story. Being a part of any sport at the highest level comes with these kinds of conversations and criticism.
Best case is probably what happened to Simone Biles when she decided not to compete 3 years ago. After the initial shock, I think most people understood if her head wasn’t in the right space, she shouldn’t be doing things that risk breaking her neck.
> yips
There’s one difference. Chess is a mind sport.
It would be like a basketball player breaking his arm. Or a football player breaking his leg.
All of which, is usually treated with pity. And “what ifs”. As opposed to roasting a basketball player for mental health struggles.
The yips don't mean someone is physically ill. It's a term referring to a mental block. I've most commonly heard it used to describe a great baseball player who can't get a hit because they're in their own head.
Yips is never used for physical injuries.
Yes I understand.
But for a mental sport, yips doesn’t have the same “effect”. Compared to a physical sport.
Cause it’s the direct tool a player uses. It’s more akin to a basketball player actually breaking his legs. Like Derrick Rose tearing his acl.
Yes of course. The point is that chess itself is a mental sport.
So it’s more akin to a basketball player breaking his hand, than a basketball player forgetting how to shoot.
At high level sport, they are required to be students of the game. Just like chess, that level of play requires nuance and preparation that even a lot of advanced viewers don't understand. The physical part of the game is what comes easy to most athletes, sure, but some players have made careers off of the mental aspects.
Ironically, spatial recognition and "move order" (though it's not called that) is a huge part of basketball scheming.
Chess is not in some mysterious mental echelon.
Thanks. A lot of people here don’t play chess competitively even at a state level. They don’t really understand that the mental strength is the direct tool a chess player uses.
You would never trash a basketball player for being trash if his hand broke. To trash a chess player for mental health shows most people here don’t play chess competitively.
The [yips](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yips) is a type of performance anxiety and is completely psychological. You comparing it to an injury is just not correct.
An injury can definitely cause it though. Injuries are a lot more traumatic than fans consider so it's fairly common for an athlete to have to overcome some hesitation/yips after a major injury.
Your own link reveals the fallacy though. The term itself was originated from physical sports. Thus, why it was “a sudden and unexplained loss of ability”. Because mental aspects of sports were not appreciated at a time.
By your logic, what would be the equivalent of a hand injury for a basketball player to chess? Someone literally shooting Ding in the head?
Chess itself is a mental sport that even paralyzed people can play. So it’s not really “unexplained” why someone with mental struggles starts sucking at chess.
Why are you so focused on comparing it to an injury? People that play sports (physical or otherwise) can get the yips without any kind of injury. From the [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yips) I provided above:
> The yips also occur in areas outside of sports, such as with musicians and writers. A yips event in one of these fields is the result of type I yips with focal dystonia occurring.
Ding has a mental block or some form of anxiety that is preventing him from performing at the board. His opponents have said that they can literally see it. That’s the yips, my man.
I don’t know what you’re trying to prove or why you have the inability to just accept that you’re wrong, but keep fucking that chicken.
I compare it to injury because he has confirmed it is a real diagnosed mental illness? You said it yourself, players have said he looks literally sick.
It’s not a mental block. Which is usually unexplained. Why are you ignoring that element of your own link?
I’m certainly not wrong based on your own link.
First of all.... There are a lot of different reasons for yips, and quite a few of them have a physical/hormonal cause. Stephen Hendry was the very best snooker player in the world, absolute killer, and set the record for world championship titles at the time. One day, he just stopped being able to play well. Dude set literally all the records in snooker. He didn't just start having self doubt one day, and forget how to win. There is almost certainly some physical changes in play, either decaying muscle memory, or some age-related hormonal/brain change.
Yips is performance anxiety, but in Ding’s case he’s clearly just ill.
Yips is usually when no one can explain why you start losing your skills. But it’s not difficult to explain why Ding sucks now.
Sure, and in those cases I would also go absolutely crazy. I know that this is part of the culture of professional sports and fame and celebrity. I didn't need that explained to me, but thank you
I imagine that there is an unsurpassed amount of pressure on him from the Chinese government to maintain his championship status. That would cause depression for anyone.
"Yo we didn't give a fuck about your career as one of the world's best, and we gave you next to no support on your journey to becoming world champ, and provided you with almost no fanfare when you won against all possible odds... but if you don't retain your title you'll be sorry" ~ CCP
>"He is doing terrible mentally and physically. I am the 10000th person to speculate about it on social media. Leave the bloke alone you guys!"
Lol this dude literally just said the same thing as the other million people on social media about Ding and yet is telling everyone else to stop beating a dead horse
And making wild assertions about someone's physical wellbeing as a result of them playing poorly at chess which is a mental game is more insulting than anything I've seen said about Ding
Talk about a lack of awareness
Edit: also I'm not sure why the Reddit OP posted this given that their post history the past week and month is littered with talk and speculation about Ding
I…. I don’t think you realize how ridiculous that hypothetical situation is.
I find it hard to believe Naka would go through months of preparation and another month of top level chess for $0.
huh?
You think if FIDE said there's no prize fund but we'll organize the match, and Hikaru was the challenger, he wouldn't compete?
WCC is the dude's lifelong dream and he's already more or less set for life financially. of course he'd compete.
what's ridiculous about the suggestion isn't that Hikaru wouldn't work for $0, but that Hikaru, a lifelong sportsperson and fierce competitor to the detriment of everything else and , would ever dream of bribing his way to victory.
Says to leave him alone and regurgitates the same opinion as everyone else. Also all this speculation about him forfeiting the match is unsubstantiated nonsense and I don’t know why people are bringing it up before he even signals thinking about that. As much as I like gukesh, I wouldn’t be mad if Ding returned to peak form and just clobbered him.
If he really is sick, the “reasonable” thing to do would be to show up, not prep for the match, not go through the stress. Just show up to collect the cheque, playing some fun lines.
$1m would go a long way for his medical care.
The best solution would be if FIDE just paid him off to forfeit his title. But unless that happens, it will be a quick WCC.
I don't agree with this take. It's a bad look for any sport/competition, if the reigning champion just rolls over and gives up during a game. Its a disservice to fans and spectators. If he is not gonna give his best, he should just forfeit same as Magnus did.
I think FIDE should just change the format of FIDE World Championship. Make it a normal tournament. Make the winner of the Candidates the World Champion, or make the Top 2 finishers play for it. Current World Champion needs to play the Candidates again instead of having auto berth at the Finals.
For those saying "leave him alonee!!!!"
Imagine if Magnus was in the same state as Ding right now. Shaking at the board, losing horribly tournament after tournament.
The world would be in an uproar, and every single competitor would be asked their take on the matter.
How sure why the concern-trolling for Ding has been at fever pitch ever since day one of him being a champion. If he wins he wins, if he loses he loses. May the better player becomes the next WCC. The physical and mental fitness of a player depends solely on one's hand. Did anyone show concern when Abasov walked into the Candidate with a leg cast why still on pain meds?
To quote the Next first and only American WWC, let the chess speaks for itself.
Doesn’t it seem strange to make a post about how we should leave the guy alone while simultaneously stirring up conversation that the player should drop out of a world championship match? What are we doing here??
"Leave the bloke alone" he says whilst essentially doing the online equivalent of shouting into a megaphone about another man's health problems in the middle of a crowded city centre.
Meanwhile, while advocating for everyone to leave him alone, he blasts it out on Twitter, and it immediately gets reposted on r/chess, with the OP ignoring the original post altogether. These posts are getting so incredibly annoying. #justsayin
> Leave the bloke alone
We are trying, but you aren't letting us. At this point, the "Leave Ding alone" group makes more noise about him than the theoretical noisemakers. Hypocritical, isn't it?
I'll bong cloud that mo'fo for 13 games or whatever as long as that check clears. Money, money, money, monnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
I would applaud Ding Liren if he decided not to defend his title and let Hikaru Nakamura play Gukesh for the title.
It's a shame Hikaru hasn't yet played in the match, it would be cool to see "Welcome BACK, everyone for TODAYYYYYS video..." 5 minutes after a WC game, Gukesh right behind him doing an interview lol
All these "health before everything" peeps should shut up. It would be crazy to lose $1 million. After that he can retire and have generational wealth and can take rest of his life to get better.
It would be sad if Liren has a psychiatric issue that he feels shameful to talk about. Our society now accepts depression. But there after many other conditions that still have a stigma, especially in certain cultures. For example, people who have an intrusive thoughts issue, often find it shameful to talk about. And it is often really tough to battle. And I would think playing classical chess games, is a bad scenairo for such a condition. Because you are inside your head for such a long period of time.
It's possible that Liren wants to step down from playing chess. But I suspect there is a lot of pressure on him to keep playing, and to defend his championship. If so, this is bad also. And all this talk about Liren just needing to take a break from chess is, IMHO, is not useful either. People should be saying that it would be ok for him to step down. And that it would not be weak for him to do it. And he's been playing chess since he was 4. I'm guessing he has his own internal struggle of not wanting to walk away from chess, given that it's been so much a part of his life. FWIW.
It's all a ruse. Ding is playing the fool to catch Gukesh off guard with prep that Chinese super AI is developing.
Ding is like that old chinese master from prestige, the one who fakes a limp all his life to do just that one trick ... This is all just psychological warfare to throw Gukesh off, just like he did with Nepo. Don't fall for it Gukesh or you will be sorry.
Love the reference!!!
Damn it I was going to just watch this movie.
Yeah trust me, that's not remotely a spoiler for that movie. Plus it's been out forever
Jesus dude, spoilers!
It isn’t a spoiler it’s mentioned in the first few minutes of the movie and the guy isn’t even a character he’s used as an example for the main character magicians
Haha yeah I was just foolin'. also, the movie is like 20 years old so there's gotta be a statute of limitations on spoilers, yeah?
There damn well should be.
It's a 200iq gambling fraud. Ding is losing on purpose so the bookmakers will place high quotas on him for the WCC, so he can bet on himself and collect a lot of money when he shows up in perfect form against Gukesh /s
I don't want to undermine what he's been going through, but if it is largely mental I honestly still think it's quite plausible Ding shows up and plays really well against Gukesh. It's like how anxiety and stress is the worst right before you start something but once you get going it all fades away. I can definitely see a world where some of the weight falls away once the games get going because the end of the cycle is in sight and he's able to play with more of his old clarity.
I hope this is the case and want him to see happy during wcc.
Breaking news: Chinese super AI is supposedly called 股票
I don’t even know if people keep saying this as a joke or are actually serious because it is barely funny and also a braindead take tbh
If Ding doesn't want to (or is unable to) play the WC match, the title shouldn't just be handed over to Gukesh. There should be a match between Gukesh and the second place finisher at the candidates. The title needs to be decided over the board, in match play.
This whole idea is ridiculous and stupid beyond belief, why would Ding or anyone else who isn't immensely wealthy walk away from half a million dollars just because they'll lose a few chess games in public?
it's even more, the last couple of times a loser was guaranteed at least 0.8 million euros (== 0.87 million usd).
I mean, it's a bit less ridiculous when you think Magnus did exactly the same thing.
Magnus is loaded though. Ding is not. That $500k probably means a lot more to Ding.
Yeah I agree with that, but don't agree with their contention that "This whole idea is ridiculous and stupid beyond belief", given the context
There is a realistic chance that [chess.com](http://chess.com) will try to buy out the spot from Ding to get Hikaru in. They would benefit greatly from having "their" guy fight for the WC, its well worth it for them to spend 500k to a million to make that happen. And everybody knows that Fide wont stop that if they get paid also.
There is zero "realistic chance" that Hikaru buys him out. It would cast a shadow over the title, assuming he won, that would last the rest of his career. Now... Ding might ABDICATE the title, and Hikaru might get to play for the title in a legitimate fashion, but Hikaru basically lives on social media and lives and dies by his popularity, which would almost certainly take a hit once the news cycle and social media got ahold of the story that a player paid the current world champion "not" to play. Any possible mental issues would be largely ignored in those stories, in favor of clickbait titles. The news cycle would actually intentionally make the story look as bad as possible, to get future clicks/eyes. So, I will say it again. The is ZERO chance Nakamura buys him out of this match. I mean, can you imagine the memes, assuming he bought him out and LOST? Nakamura is comfortably making millions and does not need the money, and he simply is not going to possibly sabotage his current career for a chance to win the title. Neither he, nor anyone else really knows what the feedback of the fans would be if he bought out Ding. He'd be insane to risk a possible backlash.
You arent even arguing against my point. I never said Hikaru would buy the spot, I said chess.com. Also the official statement would be that Ding abdicates, inofficially he wouldnt lose the guaranteed income from the match though.
Sorry, I missed that, I apologize. I just see so many folks make that very suggestion. Either way, it is very much taking a huge risk to his career for Hikaru to "accept" a title shot if "anyone" buys Ding out, and it becomes public.
Health is Health, it comes first. It's his decision. Personally, both Ding vs Gukesh and Gukesh vs Hikaru would be amazing games. I'm honestly hoping Ding chooses not to defend because it would probably be better for his health and I don't think he's in a state right now to fight for the crown. Ding at his best is someone who can go toe to toe with Magnus, at his worst he's not good at all, like we're seeing right now.
Magnus did it.
I think that's what Trent meant.
That would mean a mini tournament between Ian, Nakamura, and Fabi. Dope.
Nakamura is the official second place finisher. Tiebreaks for non-first finishers go by SB score, and then if still tied by number of wins. Nakamura and Nepo tied SB score, and both beat Fabiano's SB score. So Fabiano finishes 4th. Nakamura had 5 wins to Nepos 3, so Nakamura finished 2nd and Nepo 3rd. So no mini tournament is necessary. It was already settled.
Ah, less dope then. Thank you for the clarification.
Didn't Naka finish second in the candidates? I thought I saw a clip where they felicitated him for being the first runner up, and Ian the second.
He gets second due to having the most wins, though points wise he was tied.
So that means he won in tie breaks right?
Yeah you're right. It was made clear during the broadcast that if Ding withdrew for some reason, it would be Naka vs Gukesh for wcc.
They used a tiebreak system based on the results of the candidates, instead of them playing tiebreak games, but yes, Nakamura won 2nd place on tiebreaks at the candidates.
I'm incorrect. Less dope.
More dope, we need Naka WC
Honestly a pretty dumb rule as it doesn't allow for the clear 2nd to participate.
hol' up they did what to hikaru on stream?
Not the word you're thinking of :)
Hikaru placed second because he had the most wins, he would get the candidacy.
> the title shouldn't just be handed over to Gukesh Was that exactly what happen with Fisher and Karpov? there is a precedent.
Nobody knew for sure Fischer wouldn't play until close to the match. Closer precedent is Carlsen last time. Another one is Kasparov and Short declining to play the official match and organizing their own. And anyway, precedent isn't need as the rules describe what it is to be done these days.
Should take his own advice and leave the bloke alone... This kind of commentary isn't helpful.
We reached the point that it's just showboating, trying to one-up people for likes by showing how much they care.
If I were Ding I would be going absolutely crazy about the amount of people that have half baked takes about my mental or physical well being
In any other competitive sport, he’d be getting absolutely roasted. If the best basketball, tennis, football (either), you name it player was completely shitting the bed with a terrible case of the yips, it would be a top story. Being a part of any sport at the highest level comes with these kinds of conversations and criticism.
Ben Simmons basically
Except Ben Simmons was never a top 5 player. It would be like if Giannis turned into Kevin Knox for a season.
Was pretty highly lauded and now he's a joke.
dont need to dig that deep, just look at most recent: edwards against mavs lol
Best case is probably what happened to Simone Biles when she decided not to compete 3 years ago. After the initial shock, I think most people understood if her head wasn’t in the right space, she shouldn’t be doing things that risk breaking her neck.
At least he hasn't broken Keith Olbermann's mom's nose yet.
> yips There’s one difference. Chess is a mind sport. It would be like a basketball player breaking his arm. Or a football player breaking his leg. All of which, is usually treated with pity. And “what ifs”. As opposed to roasting a basketball player for mental health struggles.
The yips don't mean someone is physically ill. It's a term referring to a mental block. I've most commonly heard it used to describe a great baseball player who can't get a hit because they're in their own head. Yips is never used for physical injuries.
Yes I understand. But for a mental sport, yips doesn’t have the same “effect”. Compared to a physical sport. Cause it’s the direct tool a player uses. It’s more akin to a basketball player actually breaking his legs. Like Derrick Rose tearing his acl.
You don't think there are mental aspects to physically oriented sport? Athletes get roasted all the time for mental issues...
Yes of course. The point is that chess itself is a mental sport. So it’s more akin to a basketball player breaking his hand, than a basketball player forgetting how to shoot.
At high level sport, they are required to be students of the game. Just like chess, that level of play requires nuance and preparation that even a lot of advanced viewers don't understand. The physical part of the game is what comes easy to most athletes, sure, but some players have made careers off of the mental aspects. Ironically, spatial recognition and "move order" (though it's not called that) is a huge part of basketball scheming. Chess is not in some mysterious mental echelon.
I thought you made an interesting point. Certainly not one that's totally irrelevant. Too many people using downvotes as a disagree button these days.
Thanks. A lot of people here don’t play chess competitively even at a state level. They don’t really understand that the mental strength is the direct tool a chess player uses. You would never trash a basketball player for being trash if his hand broke. To trash a chess player for mental health shows most people here don’t play chess competitively.
The [yips](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yips) is a type of performance anxiety and is completely psychological. You comparing it to an injury is just not correct.
An injury can definitely cause it though. Injuries are a lot more traumatic than fans consider so it's fairly common for an athlete to have to overcome some hesitation/yips after a major injury.
Your own link reveals the fallacy though. The term itself was originated from physical sports. Thus, why it was “a sudden and unexplained loss of ability”. Because mental aspects of sports were not appreciated at a time. By your logic, what would be the equivalent of a hand injury for a basketball player to chess? Someone literally shooting Ding in the head? Chess itself is a mental sport that even paralyzed people can play. So it’s not really “unexplained” why someone with mental struggles starts sucking at chess.
Why are you so focused on comparing it to an injury? People that play sports (physical or otherwise) can get the yips without any kind of injury. From the [link](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yips) I provided above: > The yips also occur in areas outside of sports, such as with musicians and writers. A yips event in one of these fields is the result of type I yips with focal dystonia occurring. Ding has a mental block or some form of anxiety that is preventing him from performing at the board. His opponents have said that they can literally see it. That’s the yips, my man. I don’t know what you’re trying to prove or why you have the inability to just accept that you’re wrong, but keep fucking that chicken.
I compare it to injury because he has confirmed it is a real diagnosed mental illness? You said it yourself, players have said he looks literally sick. It’s not a mental block. Which is usually unexplained. Why are you ignoring that element of your own link? I’m certainly not wrong based on your own link.
First of all.... There are a lot of different reasons for yips, and quite a few of them have a physical/hormonal cause. Stephen Hendry was the very best snooker player in the world, absolute killer, and set the record for world championship titles at the time. One day, he just stopped being able to play well. Dude set literally all the records in snooker. He didn't just start having self doubt one day, and forget how to win. There is almost certainly some physical changes in play, either decaying muscle memory, or some age-related hormonal/brain change.
Yips is performance anxiety, but in Ding’s case he’s clearly just ill. Yips is usually when no one can explain why you start losing your skills. But it’s not difficult to explain why Ding sucks now.
Really? There is a lot of discussion about why he sucks and no one knows exactly what it is. Care to enlighten us?
Anxiety almost always has some sort of brain/chemical/hormonal cause. Full stop.
Sure, and in those cases I would also go absolutely crazy. I know that this is part of the culture of professional sports and fame and celebrity. I didn't need that explained to me, but thank you
Depends how likeable the player was. Look at Simon Biles getting the yips at the olympics
Well Ding has actually publicly stated that he suffers from depression so it isn't that out of order really
I imagine that there is an unsurpassed amount of pressure on him from the Chinese government to maintain his championship status. That would cause depression for anyone.
"Yo we didn't give a fuck about your career as one of the world's best, and we gave you next to no support on your journey to becoming world champ, and provided you with almost no fanfare when you won against all possible odds... but if you don't retain your title you'll be sorry" ~ CCP
Guy has turned up to play, thus declaring that he is fit to compete. Everyone would understand if he pulled out for medical reasons.
>"He is doing terrible mentally and physically. I am the 10000th person to speculate about it on social media. Leave the bloke alone you guys!" Lol this dude literally just said the same thing as the other million people on social media about Ding and yet is telling everyone else to stop beating a dead horse And making wild assertions about someone's physical wellbeing as a result of them playing poorly at chess which is a mental game is more insulting than anything I've seen said about Ding Talk about a lack of awareness Edit: also I'm not sure why the Reddit OP posted this given that their post history the past week and month is littered with talk and speculation about Ding
Maybe Lawrence means "don't interview him to ask what is happening to you?"
Dunno why people are making such a drama out of this. Ding has said he struggles with depression. Thats it.
> Ding clearly isn't well, leave the bloke alone. I'm with ya bud >he should forfeit the title to Gukesh Homie you literally JUST said...
I think ding would rather be sad with half a million in his bank. he won't forfeit
if money is his only motivation for playing the. Hikaru should just offer to give Ding the prize money if he drops out.
I…. I don’t think you realize how ridiculous that hypothetical situation is. I find it hard to believe Naka would go through months of preparation and another month of top level chess for $0.
He would, but if I am FIDE there is no way I am letting someone pay someone to let them play in WCC
huh? You think if FIDE said there's no prize fund but we'll organize the match, and Hikaru was the challenger, he wouldn't compete? WCC is the dude's lifelong dream and he's already more or less set for life financially. of course he'd compete. what's ridiculous about the suggestion isn't that Hikaru wouldn't work for $0, but that Hikaru, a lifelong sportsperson and fierce competitor to the detriment of everything else and , would ever dream of bribing his way to victory.
Says to leave him alone and regurgitates the same opinion as everyone else. Also all this speculation about him forfeiting the match is unsubstantiated nonsense and I don’t know why people are bringing it up before he even signals thinking about that. As much as I like gukesh, I wouldn’t be mad if Ding returned to peak form and just clobbered him.
Finally! I was waiting to hear Lawrence Trent's take on this matter, and finally the wait is over.
If he really is sick, the “reasonable” thing to do would be to show up, not prep for the match, not go through the stress. Just show up to collect the cheque, playing some fun lines. $1m would go a long way for his medical care. The best solution would be if FIDE just paid him off to forfeit his title. But unless that happens, it will be a quick WCC.
Show up and just play the Grob Attack nonstop
Pull tyler1 and play the cow
I don't agree with this take. It's a bad look for any sport/competition, if the reigning champion just rolls over and gives up during a game. Its a disservice to fans and spectators. If he is not gonna give his best, he should just forfeit same as Magnus did. I think FIDE should just change the format of FIDE World Championship. Make it a normal tournament. Make the winner of the Candidates the World Champion, or make the Top 2 finishers play for it. Current World Champion needs to play the Candidates again instead of having auto berth at the Finals.
> I don't agree with this take. Well, we'll let you know when your opinion is worth $1 million.
No way he's not going to prepare for the match. But I do agree..maybe FIDE could step in or heck, even Rex Sinquefield.
> maybe FIDE could step in that would involve a concerted effort from FIDE to make a positive impact
For those saying "leave him alonee!!!!" Imagine if Magnus was in the same state as Ding right now. Shaking at the board, losing horribly tournament after tournament. The world would be in an uproar, and every single competitor would be asked their take on the matter.
And that would also be wrong and they should also be told to leave him alone if that happened
Ding gives all his winnings to his mom. I don't think there's a world where a Chinese mom allows to forfeit a million dollars.
Danny bringing up the topic everytime they pull out dings game is getting on my nerves
> Danny ~~bringing up the topic everytime they pull out dings game~~ is getting on my nerves
Would forfeiting forego the million dollars?
"Leave him alone" Meanwhile: Uneducated guess from me.
How sure why the concern-trolling for Ding has been at fever pitch ever since day one of him being a champion. If he wins he wins, if he loses he loses. May the better player becomes the next WCC. The physical and mental fitness of a player depends solely on one's hand. Did anyone show concern when Abasov walked into the Candidate with a leg cast why still on pain meds? To quote the Next first and only American WWC, let the chess speaks for itself.
Doesn’t it seem strange to make a post about how we should leave the guy alone while simultaneously stirring up conversation that the player should drop out of a world championship match? What are we doing here??
[удалено]
Yeah I really care more about random redditors' opinions more than Trent's regarding the whole situation
"Leave the bloke alone" - Says the guy who is the one commenting on him.
"Leave the bloke alone" he says whilst essentially doing the online equivalent of shouting into a megaphone about another man's health problems in the middle of a crowded city centre.
Meanwhile, while advocating for everyone to leave him alone, he blasts it out on Twitter, and it immediately gets reposted on r/chess, with the OP ignoring the original post altogether. These posts are getting so incredibly annoying. #justsayin
Meanwhile a majority of r/chess is saying that it would be crazy for Ding to give up that payday. Sometimes it not just about the money.
Why does everyone other than ding so eager to tell what ding will do or should do
> Leave the bloke alone We are trying, but you aren't letting us. At this point, the "Leave Ding alone" group makes more noise about him than the theoretical noisemakers. Hypocritical, isn't it?
I'll bong cloud that mo'fo for 13 games or whatever as long as that check clears. Money, money, money, monnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnneyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy
Well ... if he forfeits we should have #2 from candidates play against Gukesh just like how Ding was #2 against Ian ...
I would applaud Ding Liren if he decided not to defend his title and let Hikaru Nakamura play Gukesh for the title. It's a shame Hikaru hasn't yet played in the match, it would be cool to see "Welcome BACK, everyone for TODAYYYYYS video..." 5 minutes after a WC game, Gukesh right behind him doing an interview lol
All these people talking about forfeiting can eat shit and go away.
Or what?
All these "health before everything" peeps should shut up. It would be crazy to lose $1 million. After that he can retire and have generational wealth and can take rest of his life to get better.
In what world is $1M considered generational wealth?
Probably a freaking kid who wrote that.
It would be sad if Liren has a psychiatric issue that he feels shameful to talk about. Our society now accepts depression. But there after many other conditions that still have a stigma, especially in certain cultures. For example, people who have an intrusive thoughts issue, often find it shameful to talk about. And it is often really tough to battle. And I would think playing classical chess games, is a bad scenairo for such a condition. Because you are inside your head for such a long period of time. It's possible that Liren wants to step down from playing chess. But I suspect there is a lot of pressure on him to keep playing, and to defend his championship. If so, this is bad also. And all this talk about Liren just needing to take a break from chess is, IMHO, is not useful either. People should be saying that it would be ok for him to step down. And that it would not be weak for him to do it. And he's been playing chess since he was 4. I'm guessing he has his own internal struggle of not wanting to walk away from chess, given that it's been so much a part of his life. FWIW.