Hacker News Reader

Comment by iconhacker | Hacker News Reader

Ding is clearly a better player who can play at high level with little preparation. Gukesh have the whole Indian team behind him hardly put any pressure on Ding. Sometimes not the best player wins. And I am disappointed that Gukesh played as an average GM when he is out of his prep. There is definitely something lacking.

View on HN

Definitely very much like an average GM.

Facts:

- 18 years old, GM since age 12

- Youngest ever world champion after being youngest ever winner of the candidates

- Youngest ever to have > 2750 FIDE

- Wins individual gold on board 1 at the olympiad with 9 points out of 10 matches and no losses

- Magnus Carlsen says "Gukesh almost never makes mistakes, which makes him an extremely dangerous opponent under any circumstances..."

Hackernews commenter:

- Gukesh plays like an average GM when out of prep

Rightly pointed out. One can argue on why Ding made the mistake but that has nothing to do with Gukesh's talent. For me the fact that he is only 18 is huge; it means that he has more than a decade of honours waiting for him.

HN seems to lately have had an influx of folks who just want to toot their "opinions" however clueless it might be. They need to be reminded of the Asimov quote; There is a false notion that democracy means that "my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge."

No one at this level is playing tournaments without massive preparation. This is especially true at the WCC where both sides have not just one but teams of seconds to help with prep.

Ding has been a shadow of himself ever since he won the world championship and if anything has been seen as the weakest world champion since 2006.

Yet, it took Gukesh pure luck to win the final game. So it is Ding’s loss than Gukesh’s win. Who is the weakest, your logic?

“The winner of a game of chess is he who makes the last mistake but one.” - Probably Lasker but people often attribute this quote to Tartekower[1]

Ding won the WCC due to a terrible blunder by Nepomniachi. Good as he was Fischer blundered his bishop like a patzer during his WCC match against Spassky and came back to win the match. Chess games between humans are generally decided by somebody making a mistake. Is that luck?

Of course not. To put himself in a position to benefit from that luck he had to play extremely well for the entire match so that it would be even going into the last game.

[1] https://chesshistory.com/winter/extra/mistake.html

Reply on news.ycombinator.com