World Chess Championship: In contrast to inscrutable Gukesh, Ding Liren allows the world to see how he feels | Chess News

Ding Liren slumps in his chair as the post mortem into his Game 3 defeat to D Gukesh at the World Chess Championship begins. Journals from around the world try to prod and poke at the cadaver of his defeat, finding newer ways of asking him what had gone wrong.It’s a question he had agonised over for a long time till that point.
Right after he loses Game 3 on time to Gukesh, the world champion stays rooted to his chair, unable to raise his eyes from the floor. Visuals on social media later show the world champion standing alone backstage, hands in pockets, staring at the floor like a child punished and made to stand in the corner.

#DingGukesh Rd3Take a look at the photo! 👁‍🗨👁‍🗨That does not describe to you the details of the game but you know – without words – who won and who lost.”Today I just managed to outplay my opponent” – said the winner. And that is the point, in every meaning.Gukesh, again as in… pic.twitter.com/OPihs0Qx3o
— Judit Polgar (@GMJuditPolgar) November 27, 2024
This has been the theme of Ding’s Game 3. In the middle of the game, when he errs with a rook and Gukesh finds the right response to pile on the pressure, Ding sits on the board shaking his head. One can’t hear it, but can feel him admonishing himself under his breath. When the vice-like grip of time trouble starts tightening, and a series of bad moves start mounting up, Ding sits there, his palm planted on his forehead like he’s bet away all his life’s savings on the roulette wheel.
At the other end, the 18-year-old boy who has just won his first world championship battle — not to mention his first game against Ding Liren in classical chess — is calmly putting the pieces back on their squares like he’s just rearranging stationery on his desk after walking in for his regular eight-hour-shift. Only on a handful of times over the three games has Gukesh publicly bled any emotion. His answers are straight to the point, his face inscrutable.
In stark contrast to the boy from Chennai is the emotionally transparent Ding, whose face is a human evaluation bar: one doesn’t need to know the status of the game, just one glance at his face will break the news.
At the elite level in chess, there are players like Hikaru Nakamura, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Vidit Gujrathi who are very expressive while playing, defying that norm of chess players needing to have the face for poker. But Ding stands out. Not just for his expressive visage during games, but also his candour in answering questions.
Ding Liren reacts during the World Chess Championship Game 3 with Gukesh. (FIDE/Eng Chin An)
At a press conference during last year’s World Chess Championship against Nepomniachtchi, Ding had publicly revealed that he had been ‘depressed and shaky’. Given the hory of world chess championship battles, that admission was initially treated with suspicion. Surely this was a player trying to lull his opponent into a false sense of superiority. It is the world championship after all. Why would a player be exposing himself as vulnerable to the world, with his rival seated a few feet away?
No false bravado
But over the last year, after he became world champion, the more he played in tournaments, his rivals started to notice that this was not some elaborate act Ding was putting on.
“You hear all the stories about Ding… but I hadn’t actually played him so far. Now seeing it in person, it is very clear that he’s not the same person he was back when I played him in 2022. Everything, including the body language, doesn’t feel right. When you’ve played against these guys for so many years, there are certain things you get used to. He just doesn’t look right,” Nakamura had said during Norway Chess in June.
At the Sinquefield Cup in August, Dutch Grandmaster Anish Giri also noticed Ding’s physical struggles.
“His physical condition is not top notch. I can see it. You hear it in the way he sits at the board: he starts to move a little bit on the chair. You see it in the way he breathes or coughs: he coughs in a way that you realise that it’s not that he’s got a cold, but it’s a nervous cough. He’s sometimes shaking a little bit… It’s just these incredible physiological signs of weakness. It’s quite intuitive, the science when people look very nervous and can’t fully control themselves. If you see it from up close, you’ll definitely notice it,” Giri had told The Indian Express, dismissing any suspicion that Ding may have been exaggerating his troubles.
Just watch his press interviews right after he became world champion in May last year, when he had nothing to gain pretence.
In one of them, Ding is asked how he’s feeling, the kind of softball question that athletes could answer on autopilot because they’re asked that at every single interview.
“It’s quite a mixed feeling. First, I am very proud to become the world champion. But secondly, it means I have to spend more time on chess,” he says before revealing that he was contemplating retiring from chess if the world championship had ended differently.
The world saw visuals of Ding slumped in his playing chair after defeating Nepomniachtchi to become world champion, almost like his emotions were trying to catch their breath after finishing a marathon.
Before making an appearance in front of the world, he snuck away into his private lounge. He is asked what were his thoughts in those moments.

“Actually I cried in my room. I could not control my emotions at that point.”
As a follow-up, he’s asked if becoming world champion was the happiest moment in his life.
“No, not the happiest. Just relief,” he says, unfocused eyes staring into the floor.