Grandmaster Ding Liren becomes the first Chinese world chess champion

With his victory in Astana on Sunday 30 April, Ding Liren succeeds Norwegian Magnus Carlsen. AP - Stanislav Filippov

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2 min

By beating Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi at the World Chess Championship on Sunday, April 30 in Astana, Ding Liren became the first Chinese to win the supreme title.

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Although Chinese players have dominated women's competitions since the 1990s, China has never won the title of world champion, to which men and women can claim. With this victory, Ding Liren succeeds Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who refused to defend the crown he had held since 2013.

The Chinese Grandmaster and the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi were tied at the end of the 14 long games started in early April (three wins, eight draws, three losses). This Sunday, the two competitors fought a fierce battle, which will remain in memory more for the scenario and the multiple twists than for the precision of the shots.

Born in Wenzhou in 1992, Ding Liren won second place at the 10 FIFA U2003 World Championship. He really revealed himself by becoming in 2009 the youngest chess champion in China. He then became the highest-ranked Chinese player in history, and the first to participate in the Candidates Tournament, whose winner becomes the challenger of the reigning world champion, in 2018 and 2020. In 2018, he became the 5th player in the world ranking, even climbing to second place in 2021.

Shutdown

But the Covid-19 pandemic, which is ongoing in China, is putting an abrupt halt to its trajectory. As of 2022, Ding Liren does not obtain a visa to participate in qualifying competitions for the Candidates Tournament and hardly participates in any official circuit competition between June 2021 and April 2022. The disqualification of Russian Sergei Karjakin from any competition organized by the International Chess Federation because of his stance in favor of the war in Ukraine, however, frees up a place for the highest ranked player who does not qualify: Ding Liren.

His participation in the Candidates tournament in April 2022 is therefore shrouded in mystery. After losing in the first match to Nepomniachtchi, Ding made up for it and snatched second place in the tournament on the final day. The position miraculously became a qualifier for the world championship when five-time defending winner Magnus Carlsen decided to give up his crown, tired of the competition format. Facing "Nepo", in Astana, Ding runs after the score. Led three times, he came back to level by winning the 12th round, at the end of a game where his opponent had, on several occasions, a decisive advantage, but did not find the right shots to conclude.

The date of the next world championship is not known. The Candidates Tournament, which will determine the challenger of the Chinese Grandmaster, will take place in April 2024.

(

With AFP)

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