DING LIREN – our new World Chess Champion

Ding Liren is officially the first player from China to be crowned as the World Chess Champion. After nerve-wracking final tiebreaks, Ding dethroned Magnus Carlsen. Let’s have a closer look and recap the last fascinating rounds and the tiebreaker.

Game 7 – Nepomniachtchi takes the lead

In Game 7, we witnessed a dramatic game where Ding went for the French Defence – an unexpected opening last played in a world championship since 1978. He later started to be slightly better after Nepomniachtchi pushed too hard on the kingside. All of a sudden, Ding was struggling in a time trouble where he miscalculated in a critical position and found himself in a despairing position. Nepomniachtchi was the leader again, with a score of 4:3.

Game 8 – a supposed leak of Ding’s preparation

Game 8 was far from stable. The chaos started after the opening where Ding had some interesting lines to choose from but decided to complicate the position and left Nepomniachtchi in discomfort. After complicating the position again, Ding lost his gigantic advantage. Nepomniachtchi got his relief after he found equality using Ding’s time problems. The game ended in a draw.

An interesting side story was going on after this round. A post on Reddit informed us about two anonymous Lichess accounts, with the same openings as Ding used in the match. It’s possible that Nepomniachtchi might find it before the match, or Ding’s team posted it on purpose to confuse the Nepo team. For now, we can’t confirm or disprove this rumour. 

Game 9, Game 10, and Game 11

In these games, players finally got some rest following the crazy games before. The intensity of the games was lower and in Game 9 after 6 hours of play, there was a dead draw on the board.

In Game 10, both players showed us a precise and solid game that also ended in a draw. Game 11 was also a quiet draw, where Nepomniachtchi decided to early simplify the position to maintain his lead 6:5. Now he only needed the last point to be the World Champion.

Game 12 – the wildest game with the most painful moments for Nepomniachtchi 

“The craziest” would probably be a good label for a Game 12. Ding went for a Colle System trying to avoid the theoretical lines, but ended up in a position that suited Nepomniachtchi better. Ding went for early, and not right, 17. g4, where after playing the right moves, Nepomniachtchi created a powerful attack on the kingside, which gave him a huge advantage. It seemed like the match might be over, and Nepomniachtchi felt it too. Ding fought until the end and went for a complication in the centre, which shockingly worked out well for him. 

The evaluation bar went crazy, from winning for black to winning for white, and then winning for black again. Nepomniachtchi, with enough time left on his clock, played quickly in the most critical moments and, surprisingly, the position was equal. Sadly, after the fatal blunder on move 34, Nepomniachtchi completely collapsed as he realised he was about to lose. 

The position was totally lost, and Nepomniachtchi was extremely sad and disappointed. He resigned a few moves later.

Game 13

In Game 13, Ding created a better position but simplified and let the last game decide the winner. Nepomniachtchi was under a lot of pressure, but successfully equalised and slowly found himself in a slightly better position. The advantage that Nepomniachtchi created was not enough, as Ding simplified the position and had compensation. Nepomniachtchi was still playing for a win, but Ding was very careful and precise with his defence.

The game ended in a draw after 3 hours of play. Both left the title to be decided in the last game.

Game 14

Whoever wins the last game wins the World Championship title. They both knew this game can decide the winner, so they started by playing carefully. They quickly exchanged queens and Ding sacrificed a pawn to get into an equal rook endgame. Nepomniachtchi tried to push for a win by draining Ding’s energy, but Ding defended very well, and they agreed to a draw on move 90.

The Final Tiebreak

After 14 played games, the score of the World Championship between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Liren Ding was 7:7. They headed to a final tiebreaker of four rapid games with a time control of 25 minutes + 10-second increment per each move. 

Three games out of 4 were played with a score of 1,5:1,5 and Liren Ding was about to have black pieces. In the games before, they both kept the positions easy-going, with no huge moments of inequality. 

In the last rapid game, Nepomniachtchi went again for Anti-Marshall, but this time with an unusual 13. Bb1. As the game continued, no one really expected Ding to turn things around. Later, Nepomniachtchi tried to repeat the moves, and we all thought the championship was about to move to the blitz section. Suddenly, Ding decided not to repeat and even though he was a minute down, Nepomniachtchi panicked and played some inaccuracies. Ding was surprisingly a minute up and in a comfortable position, not shaking as many of us would during a special game like this one. Shortly after Ding played 47… c4, Nepomniachtchi knew he was in big trouble and resigned. 

In the final ceremony, Ding was crowned with a green wreath, a gold medal and the cup. He not only won the title of the World Champion but also received €1,1 million. “I’m very happy to win the match. It was very tough and difficult. I’d like to thank the sponsors and organisers, and I also want to thank my opponent, Ian, for being a great fighter and fighting until the very end”, Ding said in the post-interview.

We want to congratulate Ding and thank all of you for watching the games with us!

Author

STELLA SÁŇKOVÁ