Ding Liren not same player he was five years ago; dealing with issues: Hikaru Nakamura | Chess News

America grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura on Thursday congratulated Gukesh on becoming the youngest world champion but also said that Ding Liren might be dealing with some issues.
“I thought that Gukesh was clearly the favourite going into this match. He had some ups and downs throughout this match. But at the end of the day he got the job done,” Nakamura said on his YouTube channel.
Talking about Ding, Nakamura said that the Chinese Grandmaster was not the same player he was 5 years ago.

“I think on some level the fans are probably a little bit disappointed the blunders that occurred from Ding in this game. There is one thing that is abundantly clear about this match which is we can be very critical of a lot of the makes that Ding made throughout. But it is also very clear that Ding is not the same player he was even five years ago. There are certainly issues he’s dealing with. Who knows what he’ll say or won’t say but it’s very clear,” he said.
It’s clear that he’s been struggling a lot. He did not play up to the level that he was capable of. But you know, it’s definitely sad to see and I think we have to applaud him for trying the best that he could all things considered. There are a lot of players who would not make those makes but the end of the day he earned his right to be there and he did as much as he could and maybe it was a pressure. Whatever it was. It was just too much for him,” he added.

It was on the 55th move of the 14th game of the World Championship that the dye was cast. Liren, leaving his sense of danger, went for a rook trade and Gukesh pawed him almost instantly. He knew that it was his title to lose and it took just three more moves before the Chinese called it a day.

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