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.
