Ding Liren (born 24 October 1992) is a Chinese chess grandmaster and the reigning World Chess Champion. He is a three-time Chinese Chess Champion. He was the winner of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the finals and winning the 2019 Sinquefield Cup. Ding is the first Chinese player ever to play in a Candidates Tournament and pass the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE world rankings. In July 2016, with a Blitz rating of 2875, he was the highest-rated Blitz player in the world. In July 2023, Ding became the No. 1 ranked Rapid player, with a rating of 2830. Ding was undefeated in classical chess from August 2017 to November 2018, recording 29 victories and 71 draws. This 100-game unbeaten streak was the longest in top-level chess history, until Magnus Carlsen surpassed it in 2019. Ding ended up being the runner up of Chess World Cups in 2017 and 2019 consecutively and came second in the Candidates Tournament in 2022: this qualified him for the World Chess Championship 2023 against Ian Nepomniachtchi, as Carlsen declined to defend his title. Ding won, making him World Chess Champion, by defeating Nepomniachtchi 2½ to 1½ in the rapid tie breaks after their 7–7 tie in classical chess.

Early life and education

Ding was born in Wenzhou, China, and started learning chess when he was four years old. He attended Wenzhou Zhouyuan Elementary School, and is a graduate of Zhejiang Wenzhou High School and Peking University Law School.

Chess career

Ding is a three-time Chinese Chess Champion (2009, 2011, 2012 ) and has represented China at all four Chess Olympiads from 2012 to 2018, winning team gold medals in 2014 and 2018, and individual bronze and gold medals in 2014 and 2018, respectively. He also won team gold and individual silver at the World Team Championships in 2015.

2015

In August, he became the first Chinese player after Wang Yue to break into the top 10 of the FIDE world rankings.

2016

In July, with a Blitz rating of 2875, Ding was the highest-rated Blitz player in the world.

2017

After becoming the runner up of the Chess World cup in September 2017, he became the first Chinese player to qualify for a Candidates Tournament, the penultimate stage in the World Championship.

2018

At the Candidates Tournament 2018, Ding placed 4th with 1 win and 13 draws, the only candidate without a loss at the event. In September, Ding became the first Chinese player to pass the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE world rankings, and in November he reached a rating of 2816, the joint-tenth highest rating in history. This brought him to ranked 4th in the world for that month.

2019

In August, Ding tied first in the Sinquefield Cup with a score of 6½/11 (+2−0=9) with a performance rating of 2845. He won the tournament after beating Magnus Carlsen in the playoffs, drawing both games in the rapid portion and winning 2−0 in the blitz portion. In October of the same year, Ding qualified for the 2020–21 Candidates Tournament by finishing 2nd place in the World Cup for the second time in a row. He lost to Teimour Radjabov in the finals after drawing the classical games (+1−1=2), the rapid tiebreaks (+0−0=4), before losing 2−0 in the blitz tiebreaks. Along with Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Levon Aronian, he was a 2019 Grand Chess Tour finalist. Ding went on to win the Grand Chess Tour final, beating Aronian in the semi-finals and Vachier-Lagrave in the finals.

2020−2021

In March 2020, Ding played in the 2020–21 Candidates Tournament. He had a poor start, winning one game, losing three, and drawing three in the first half of the tournament before it was suspended. He finished in 5th place after the tournament was resumed in April 2021, with a score of 7/14 (+4–4=6) and a performance rating of 2768.

2022–2023

After Sergey Karjakin was disqualified from the Candidates Tournament 2022, Ding was the highest player on the ratings list who was not already qualified. Ding had been unable to travel to tournaments outside China during the COVID-19 pandemic, and was thus short of the minimum games requirement for qualification, but the Chinese Chess Association organized three different rated events at short notice to allow him to qualify. At the Candidates Tournament, Ding recovered from a slow start and finished with 8/14 (+4−2=8), achieving second place at the tournament's end on July 5. Later the same month the reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen declined to defend his title against the Candidates winner, Ian Nepomniachtchi. Therefore, Ding's second-place spot qualified him to play Nepomniachtchi in the World Chess Championship 2023. In January 2023, Ding appeared at the Tata Steel tournament, defeating Gukesh D in the first round, but then he eventually lost to R Praggnanandhaa, Richárd Rapport and Anish Giri and finished in 11th place with 5½/13 (+1−3=10). This result dropped his rating below 2800, leaving only Magnus Carlsen to retain a rating above 2800.

World Champion (2023–present)

In April 2023, Ding and Nepomniachtchi began the World Championship match with a back-and-forth classical portion that ended tied 7–7. Ding then defeated Nepomniachtchi in rapid tiebreaks, winning the fourth game as black. Ding became the first Chinese player to hold the title of World Chess Champion. In May, Ding participated in the GCT Superbet Chess Classic Romania, finishing in 8th with a score of 4/9 (+1−2=6). Following this, Ding took a nine-month break from tournaments, citing a struggle with depression.

2024

Ding ended the break in January 2024, placing ninth at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024 with a score of 6/13 (+2−3=8). In March, Ding played in the rapid time control (45+10) Grenke Chess Classic. He finished in 5th place out of 6 players, after scoring 4/10 (+0−2=8) in the double round-robin, coming second in a 4th-place tiebreaker with Vincent Keymer and Daniel Fridman (+1−2=1), and then beating Fridman 1½−½ for 5th place. In May−June, Ding played in Norway Chess, placing last out of 6 players with a score of 7/30. The tournament was a double round-robin in classical chess, with an Armageddon playoff after each classical draw. A classical win counted for three points, a classical draw and Armageddon win counted for one-and-a-half points, a classical draw and Armageddon loss counted for one point, and a classical loss counted for zero points. Ding scored no wins, four losses, and six draws in the classical games. He won 2 out of 6 Armageddon games, against R Praggnanandhaa and Hikaru Nakamura. In September, representing China as board one at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Ding failed to win a single game and as a result fell out of the FIDE top 20 rankings. He finished with a score of 3½/8 (+0−1=7), with a rating performance of 2664.

World Chess Championship 2024

Ding Liren is currently playing in singapore as the defending champion in the World Chess Championship 2024. His opponent is Gukesh.

Results

Notable games

In a constant push for the initiative, Ding places multiple pieces en prise, leading to a king hunt ending with a forced mate. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.Nf3 O-O 5.Bg5 c5 6.e3 cxd4 7.Qxd4 Nc6 8.Qd3 h6 9.Bh4 d5 10.Rd1 g5 11.Bg3 Ne4 12.Nd2 Nc5 13.Qc2 d4 14.Nf3 e5 15.Nxe5 dxc3 16.Rxd8 cxb2+ 17.Ke2 Rxd8 18.Qxb2 Na4 19.Qc2 Nc3+ 20.Kf3 Rd4 21.h3 h5 22.Bh2 g4+ 23.Kg3 Rd2 24.Qb3 Ne4+ 25.Kh4 Be7+ 26.Kxh5 Kg7 27.Bf4 Bf5 28.Bh6+ Kh7 29.Qxb7 Rxf2 30.Bg5 Rh8 31.Nxf7 Bg6+ 32.Kxg4 Ne5+ 0-1 The game would have finished with 33.Nxe5 Bf5+ 34.Kh5 Kg7+ 35.Bh6+ Rxh6# or 33.Kh4 Kg8+ 34.Nxh8 Bxg5#, the latter line resulting in a pure mate.

Personal life

He is accompanied by his mother on his travels. In an interview with Die Zeit in February 2024 he admitted being dysphoric and having problems sleeping. In November 2024 he was quoted as saying he simply no longer enjoyed his work and suffered psychological problems.