 "World Chess Championship: How Ding Liren became the world champion in 2023")
The stage is set in Singapore as India’s D Gukesh gears up for arguably his biggest chess competition till date — the 2024 World Chess Championship match against China’s Ding Liren. Liren is the defending champion, having beaten Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 World Chess Championship match. However, since then, the 32-year-old Chinese grandmaster has endured a difficult run at a time when has had to battle depression and mental health struggles.
D. Gukesh vs Ding Liren, World Chess Championship 2024 | Match date, head-to-head, prize money, all you need to know
This is the same Liren who was unbeaten for 100 games in the classical chess format between August 2017 and November 2018. He will face Gukesh, who qualified for the World Championship match after winning the Candidates tournament in Toronto this year, and is high on confidence after guiding India to a historic gold at the 45th Chess Olympiad in Hungary.
World Chess Championship | History and past winners before D Gukesh faces Ding Liren
As far as Liren is concerned, the upcoming World Chess Championship match against Gukesh will be another test of patience and resilience. Having said that, his victory over Ian in 2023 to capture his maiden World Championship crown was by no means easy. So, how did Liren clinch the World Championship title last year?
How Ding Liren became world champion in 2023
Liren had only qualified for the 2023 World Championship match against Ian after Magnus Carlsen decided against defending his title. This led to Liren, who finished the 2022 Candidates tournament in second place behind Nepomniachtchi, to qualify for the World Championship match against the Russian, who played under the FIDE banner owing to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsDing’s participation in the Candidates too was only confirmed after the FIDE banned Russian grandmaster Sergey Karjakin, who supported Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. In FIDE’s standard rating list for May 2022, Liren was the highest-rated player which is how he qualified for the Candidates tournament in Madrid.
Ding Liren | Chinese GM who learnt chess from his mother at age of 4 gearing up to defend world title against D Gukesh
The World Championship match between Liren and Ian in Kazakhstan’s Astana was a best-of-14 contest, as has been the case over the years, along with tie-breaks if needed.
In the best-of-14 contest, fortunes kept changing for both Ding and Ian. The first match ended in a draw after 49 moves, before Ian drew first blood in the second match to clinch his first win. The third game once again ended in a draw, with both players sharing the points for the second time in the competition. The scores, however, were level 2-2 after Liren beat Ian in the fourth game.
The two players had their fortunes swinging from one way to the other, until the ninth game, when Ian took a 5-4 lead over Ding following a marathon victory after 83 moves. After consecutive draws in the 10th and 11th games, Ding fought back in the 12th game with another win and level the scores 6-6. Two more draws in the 13th and 14th games meant that scores were level 7-7 and that the World Championship winner would be decided in tie-breaks.
The tie-breaks between Ding and Ian were held in the rapid time format. The first three games of the tie-breaks ended in draws, meaning the scores of both Ding and Ian were 1.5-1.5 points.
The moment Ding Liren became the FIDE World Champion 🥹🏆 pic.twitter.com/FSu9rsVg49
— Chess.com (@chesscom) April 30, 2023
Ding won the fourth tie-break game after 68 moves, which eventually earned him the World Championship title after the final tie-break score ended 2.5-1.5 points.
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