Is Ding Liren a fraud?

Ok I hate to be that guy, but Ding hasn't played at all in major tournaments since becoming world champion nearly a year ago now until the Tata Steel, he is currently in 11th out of 14 contestants, and even behind the 2549 rated Ju Wenjun, a woman. It concerns me that the "World Champion" can't dominate these tournaments that some of the world's best aren't even playing in (Magnus and Fabi). Is Ding really deserving of his title as world champion??

me personally woudnt let that slide

Magnus refused to play the world championship match. Ian and Ding both qualified. Ding is a runner-up. Ian and Ding played their match and Ding won outright. Sure he hasn't played for a year but perhaps he needed to take that amount of time off to mentally acclimate to the fact that he is now the world champion. Or did other matters that we are unaware of come into proportion? Whether or not someone "deserves" to be a world champion is different from whether or not they "are" the world champion.

And Ding Liren is the World Champion.

Real

with all due respect, considering you are not even 1200ELO, you have absolutely no right to be judging the legitimacy of a world champion. it was played fair and square, ding won, and thats it

I know, but thats not the point, lol

Generally speaking the top GMs are men, and the rating deficit alone should tell you that at the highest level the top players are men, its purely a fact, even Irina Krush at her peak was not the best in the world, although she did come closer than any other women chess players I believe. I have nothing against women, and im not saying they're bad at chess, I'm just saying its shocking that in the specific circumstances, Ju Wenjun is ahead of Ding Liren.

Well I know he is, I am just saying it would appear that he is under performing slightly... Magnus during his world champion reigns, dominated in most major tournaments or at least stayed near the top, for Ding this is not the case.

I think it is hard for us to comment on the mindset of an elite chess player. Ding Liren may have qualified for the candidates in an unconventional manner, but still finished second ahead of Hikaru, Fabi and others. And then he beat Ian. He has just barely played since; I'm sure come the next world title match he will be better.

I agree, but i do think it is surprising how little he has been playing chess and practicing, I mean any other professional athletes practice year round for their respective sports, if they didnt they would fall under deserved criticism.

I find it so dumb when people go "You're not high enough elo you can't make judgments"

Chess ELO has absolutely nothing to do when judging character, or game legitimacy.

Sexist? All he did was point out that his rating was behind a woman.

Nothing there's sexist, unless you start drawing subjective inferences

how was i sexist again?

Thanks for understanding, I meant nothing offensiv e by the post

It has been publicly announced several times that Ding has been ill. And that the illness was of a psychological nature. My conjecture is that the championship and the fame got to him, perhaps pried open a crack that was already there. Fame is very hard for some people to handle.

Illness of any sort is exhausting. So is classical chess OTB, as I discovered to my surprise when I tried it again after fighting a serious illness.

I am sure Ding is not up to his full strength because of this. I am glad he is playing again, against strong players, even though Magnus and Hikaru and Wesley and Fabi are not there. Given the recent health situation, I never did expect him to win this. I'm just glad he's there.

Give him time. I just hope his health does not crash again.

magnas and pragg are better

It‘s not surprised that a woman is tenth in a 14 person tournament - it‘s surprising that a 2550 or whatever her rating is is 10th out 14 in a tournament where the average rating is 2730 or so. It‘s simply an astonishing performance so far - no need to regard gender.

It is very odd that Ding Liren is our current world champion, but he did earn it fair and square! I wonder if he‘s going to be able to defend his title in the next world championships, though…

Let's look at the quote, shall we?

"He is currently in 11th out of 14 contestants, and even behind the 2549 rated Ju Wenjun, a woman"

Nothing in here expresses shock or surprise at the placement of Ju Wenjun because she is a woman. The only term that adds any shock to the sentence is when he said 'even', but that could just be talking about the rating or the placement. "A woman" is simply a statement of fact. It is surprising that a woman made it into the top 15, because of how rare it is. Even focusing on that, it's not sexist because of simply how surprising it is.

There is nothing objective about the grammar or phrasing that could be considered 'sexist'. Make sure you actually have something to back up your claims before calling someone sexist please

true but this is only because magnus quit

Ding doesn't deserve to be WC