Ding Liren's defeat is probably even more surprising than Carlsen's defeat - after all, Carlsen gave up the chess crown, and Ding Liren will take part in the match for it. I think no matter how much Carlsen deceives himself that by giving up the crown he will be able to continue to dominate as he used to in regular tournaments, this is not true. When an athlete loses motivation, it affects the results in all tournaments. Perhaps Carlsen is already on his way out of the top 1.
And what a way to end it, if ever. It would be best if he gets that 2900 rating first before he calls it quits. He's still got a lot of time ahead of him, and he's obviously getting even better as time passes. Sadly, if you stay too long at the top and can't meet someone who's worthy of being serious, you'll eventually lose the drive to continue doing what you do best and I guess that's what's happening with Magnus now. But yeah, I'm still hoping that he reaches the elusive 2900 before he quits chess for good, otherwise it will be a long climb for Ding Liren before he gets that rating.
Considering that only two chess players currently have ratings above 2800 (one of which is Carlsen himself), the task of scoring 2900 looks unrealistic. Even when he announced this goal of his, some grandmasters said that it was impossible. Since then, it seems that Carlsen did not play better, but vice versa. I think that this task will be submitted to the next generation of players, including Firuja, Gukesh, Eregaysi, etc. simply due to inflation (albeit slow) rating.
