Ding Liren turns into first Chinese world chess champion

China has its first official world chess champion, as Grandmaster Ding Liren defeated Russian rival Ian Nepomniachtchi in a playoff Sunday after their 14-game title match in Astana, Kazakhstan led to a 7-7 tie.

The 30-year-old Mr. Ding succeeds Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, who declined to defend his title after a decade on the throne. Mr. Carlsen stays the world’s top-ranked participant.

It was one other heartbreak for Mr. Nepomniachtchi, who misplaced to Mr. Carlsen in his first bid for the title in 2021 and led for a lot of the match in Kazakhstan. He failed to attain a clinching win within the match’s ultimate video games after which misplaced the ultimate sport of the four-round fast chess playoff to fall brief by a rating of two 1/2-1 1/2.

The decisive ultimate sport was a back-and-forth affair, with the Russian urgent too arduous for a victory with White and permitting his opponent a robust counter-punch. Despite a scarcity of time, Mr. Ding performed the ultimate section strongly to pressure resignation after 68 strikes.

The Ding victory means China now claims the open and the ladies’s world chess titles. GM Ju Wenjun shall be defending her girls’s world crown in a match towards fellow Chinese star GM Lei Tingjie in July. The final time each world titles have been held by gamers from the identical nation was earlier than the breakup of the Soviet Union within the early Nineteen Nineties.

Mr. Ding can be the second Asian participant to win the world chess title. India’s Viswanathan Anand was champion from 2007 to 2013 earlier than dropping to Mr. Carlsen.

Mr. Ding earned $1.1 million for the win and Mr. Nepomniachtchi $900,000. The victory reportedly set off a serious celebration on China’s Weibo social media web site.

The strikes of the ultimate fast sport have been:

Nepomniachtchi-Ding