“Ding is getting blown away with preparation”, says Hikaru Nakamura

The Round 4 game of the World Chess Championship Match between Ding Liren and Gukesh D ended in peaceful draw! The World Champion went for a rather innocuous approach with the white pieces, and according to many, failed to pose difficult questions for Gukesh on the board.

Ding deployed a version of the “b3 cowboy system” aka The Nimzo Larsen

“It was a bit of a surprise, and I was playing over the board from very early on, but I think I reacted well enough and at some point I felt like he had some slight edge but I quickly neutralized it”, said Gukesh ” at the press conference following the match.

The famous chess streamer, Hikaru Nakamura reacted to the game and the press conference while streaming on Kick. Hikaru seemed rather unimpressed by Ding’s demeanour following the game.
Liren told Maurice Ashley that he made good use of the rest day and was able to recuperate from the tough Round 3 loss. Ding continued his statement, making a remark on the freshly concluded game, calling his attempt to surprise his opponent from the opening a success. Nakamura however reacted strongly to that, showing absolute disagreement with Ding’s remark that his opening “worked well”. “That didn’t work well at all”, said the American Super GM.

Hikaru further went on record to criticize Ding’s unambitious approach with the white pieces. “In a World Championship Match, the approach is to be solid with black and you try to win with white”, said Hikaru. Nakamura pointed out the fact that Ding lost Game 3 and was in trouble with the clock in Game 1, indicating that he is being massively Outprepared by the Young Indian Contender with the black pieces.
“He’s gonna have to do something with white”, exclaimed Hikaru. Ding’s statement that in that particular game, he tried to play it safe resulted in Hikaru’s jaw dropping in shock after which he commented, “You’re getting blown away in preparation with black and you want to play it safe with white?”.

The 18-year-old Challenger has deployed 1.e4 as well as 1.d4 till now with the white pieces. Gukesh will take on Ding Liren with the white piece in tomorrow’s game as well, and we’ll be stoked to see if Ding can make a statement, answering the criticism with his moves!