Norway Chess: Ding Liren manages to hold Praggnanandhaa to draw as chess world rallies around world champion

World champion Ding Liren managed to halt his sequence of defeats at the Norway Chess tournament in Stavanger on Monday, managing to get a draw against India’s 18-year-old Praggnanandhaa in Round 7 after four consecutive defeats in previous rounds. In the Armageddon battle that followed the draw, however, Praggnanandhaa managed to defeat Ding.

While the draw was progress in itself for Ding, the result was painful since he was winning at some stage, but his lack of confidence ensured he ended up losing.was unhappy with the way he won the game.

“Things worked out for me. I just have to forget today. It was a very bad result. It’s a long tournament and you will get tired, but I don’t really feel too much tiredness at the moment. It was just a very bad result,” the Indian prodigy assessed after the result to Norway’s TV2. 

Ahead of the game against Praggnanandhaa, a visibly downcast Ding was asked by the local broadcast partner TV 2 how frustrating it was to not be able to play the level of chess that he is capable of playing.

“I’m very sad to have four defeats in a row. I didn’t feel very well during the games which is why I played badly,” he confessed.