Liren Ding's problem is reminiscent of that of basketball player Ricky Rubio, since both have suffered “a psychological illness, not a physical one” connected to the extreme pressure of high-competition sport. In the case of Ding, in the mental sport par excellence. The 31-year-old Chinese has suffered the consequences in the form of lack of sleep, serious problems sleeping, since he became world champion last April, and has hardly played since then. He reappears this Saturday in a very tough setting: the Tata tournament in Wijk aan Zee (Netherlands), where nine of his thirteen rivals are elite; and six of them are young people born in India (Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa), China (Yi Wei), Iran (Firouzja, nationalized French, and Maghsoodloo) and Uzbekistan (Abdusatórov), great powers in current chess.
Ding also did not sleep “not a minute” on the night of April 30 in Astana (Kazakhstan), after playing like a kamikaze in the electrifying quick tiebreaker of the World Cup to defeat the Russian Ian Niepómniashi. The next morning he told EL PAÍS that he likes philosophy, poetry and seeing and hearing the rain, but that elite chess had forced him to also be very competitive; That day he cried when he remembered the advice that a friend had given him in the most difficult moment of the duel for the title. It makes sense, therefore, that such a sensitive and cultured person would feel a lot of pressure from being the world champion of a fashionable sport with 1,500 years of documented history.
But this Friday he said that he feels good, upon meeting the journalist again at the opening ceremony of Wijk aan Zee: “Much better than three months ago. I don't consider myself a favorite for this tournament because my performance now is an unknown, but I'm in good shape physically and mentally. And my fans can rest assured: I will defend my title at the end of the year and I want to win more tournaments. It is true that I thought about retiring several times, the last of which was in September, but now I see it differently.”
Judging by what he said in his recent interview with Peter Doggers for Chess.com, the aforementioned friend who helped him so much during the World Cup is probably the 2nd Chinese player, Yi Wei, who also competes in Wijk aan Zee after several years in which he has given priority to his university studies in Economics. Ding cites a poem composed by Wei, whose opening verses could be translated as follows (without rhyme): “In the quiet month of April, an old friend traveled thousands of miles. The caged bird flies high, the pond fish swims deep in the river.” Ding recognizes that he is the bird, and Wei the fish.
But, in Ding's life, not everything has a spiritual touch: “I used to like basketball. Now more football. “I am a Juventus fan, and I trust that this distraction will help me better endure the enormous tension of this tournament.” Certainly, even if the number one, Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, “on a well-deserved vacation,” as he says in a video broadcast during the inauguration, Wijk aan Zee is not an appropriate setting to play at half throttle.
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