Last Updated: April 30, 2023, 21:30 IST
Ding Liren of China is Chess World Champion (AP)
China’s Ding Liren made historical past by changing into the seventeenth FIDE World Champion in chess, defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi within the ultimate sport of the tiebreak
Ding Liren grew to become China’s first world chess champion on Sunday after a rapid-play tie-break victory over Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in Kazakhstan.
Ding, 30, takes over as winner of the World Chess Championship from Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, who selected not to defend his title after a 10-year reign.
He and Nepomniachtchi had completed on seven factors every after the 14 first-stage video games performed within the Kazakh capital Astana. Each received three, whereas the opposite eight led to a draw.
For the tie-break stage of the match, additionally in Astana, the contenders had solely 25 minutes to make their strikes, plus an extra 10 seconds for every transfer performed.
Ding is rated increased than Nepomniachtchi within the quicker codecs of the sport however had performed little or no such chess in official competitions since January 2020.
Breaking the impasse
Carlsen, thought-about one of many best gamers of all time, had held the World Chess Championship title since 2013 and can stay the world’s top-rated participant.
The two-million-euro ($2.2-million) prize would have been cut up 60-40 between the winner and the runner-up if the match had been determined within the preliminary 14-game sequence.
Because it reached the tiebreak stage, the prize cash can be cut up 55-45.
No Chinese participant had ever beforehand received the competitors, by which women and men can compete.
But China has dominated girls’s tournaments because the Nineties and Ding’s triumph signalled the nation’s rise as a significant participant on the worldwide chess scene.
Ju Wenjun is the reigning world champion in girls’s chess and can face compatriot Lei Tingjie in July to defend her title.
China additionally received the Chess Olympiad, the sport’s most vital worldwide competitors, in 2014 and 2018, with Ding taking part in a significant position in his nation’s success on each events.
Saturday’s sport between Ding and Nepomniachtchi had demonstrated as soon as once more that at this degree chess is as a lot a query of nerves as it’s a battle of minds.
Both gamers appeared to be feeling the stress, making uncharacteristic errors of their play, whereas failing to take full benefit of the opposite’s errors.
Although Nepomniachtchi pushed onerous to convert a slight benefit right into a win, he lastly had to accept a attract what was the longest sport of the match: 90 strikes performed over greater than six and a half hours.
Sunday’s motion adopted the same pattern, with the video games seemingly to be most remembered for his or her dramatic circumstances slightly than the standard of play.
Rise to stardom
Born in Wenzhou, which has turn out to be often known as China’s “chess metropolis”, Ding burst onto the scene in 2009 when he became the country’s youngest chess champion at national level.
He then became the highest-ranked Chinese player in the world rankings, reaching a high of second place in 2021.
The Covid-19 pandemic held back Ding’s progress and he initially failed to obtain a visa for competitions leading to qualification for the Candidates Tournament, which players must win to challenge the world champion.
The disqualification of Russia’s Sergey Karjakin from all tournaments organised by the International Chess Federation, which took a pro-Ukraine position following Moscow’s invasion, freed up a space at the 2022 Candidates Tournament which Ding took as the highest-ranked non-qualifier.
He finished second at the tournament, but Carlsen’s decision to step aside from the World Chess Championship allowed him to compete against Nepomniachtchi in Astana.
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