The Week in Chess

Ding Liren won the fourth and final rapid tie-break game against Ian Nepomniachtchi to become the new World Chess Champion. It's been an astonishing run of circumstance that's led to Ding becoming Champion including today's hard fought rapid tie-break games.

Game one today was a strange d-pawn opening where white grabbed the c5 pawn, Nepomniachtchi went for a counter attack on the king with 22...Rh5 setting a nasty trap, 23.Qc2 was better for white, 23.Rb1 Ne5! left white needing to be accurate to hold which he did.

Game two was a Ruy Lopez where Nepomniachtchi stood better. 21.exd6 (21.Bg3!) allowed Ding back in the game and equality. Nepomniachtchi did continue to set problems until near the end but Ding was very accurate.

Game three was a double Fianchetto where Ding got the smallest of edges and Nepomniachtchi held in 33 moves.

The decisive game four was another Ruy Lopez, Nepomniachtchi came up with an interesting idea of 13.Bb1 but later this bishop became badly placed there. As play speeded up Nepomniachtchi played 29.Qf3 provoking 29...e4 (29...Ne7) which was tricky for Ding, the game became about equal especially after the very precise 40...Bxc3 41.Rc1 Rf6! 42.Qd7 Qe2. After 43.Bb4 Nepomniachtchi seemed to settle on a draw with 44.Qe4+ but second time around and with less than two minutes Ding played the bold 46...Rg6 avoiding the draw. Nepomniachtchi blundered with 48.h4? (he had to find 48.Qf4). But the drama was not over. Nepomniachtchi went for a counter attack with 52.Qc8 Rc6 53.Qa8 with the idea of Rd8 to follow. The engine precisely refutes this by Queening and Qc6 at the very end. Not surprisingly Ding played it safe and most of his advantage was gone but he had lots of threats. After 58...a3 59.h5 was equal as was 58...Bxg7 but real time trouble for Nepomniachtchi led to 59.Qc7? and after this Ding brought home the game and the title.

Ding: "I am quite relieved. The moment Ian resigned the game, it was a very emotional moment. I could not control my mood, my feelings. I know myself, I will cry, burst into tears. It has been quite a tough tournament for me. I'd like to thank my friends."

Ding's road to the title was highly unusual. He didn't qualify for the Candidates but when Sergey Karjakin was suspended for political comments he had a chance. Ding's career was on hold because of Covid-19 and he played very little. He had to play a large number of games in China to get his rating to a level to qualify. Around this time Magnus Carlsen said that he probably wouldn't defend his title, many didn't believe him including Ding. Nepomniachtchi dominated the Candidates but the other players weren't sure what to do, play for second or try and catch the leader. Ding wasn't really in contention for much of the event having started with a loss and then draws. However he finished with 4 wins 1 loss and 1 draw including beating Hikaru Nakamura in the final round in a direct battle for second place. Once Carlsen announced he wouldn't be defending Ding, as second place finisher, stepped in to play Nepomniachtchi.

One should spare a thought for Nepomniachtchi, he could easily have won this match himself. It came down to a very few moves, chances not being clear cut and in the end Ding's boldness seemed to catch Nepomniachtchi off guard and even then he nearly held the game.

Ian Nepomniachtchi: "I guess I had a chance and many promising positions. Probably I should have tried to finish everything in the classical portion, because it was a matter of one or two precise moves." "Today I should have used my advantage in the second game more carefully. There was a great position. And the fourth game was very difficult; Black had the initiative. But it happens. We both had little time. I could not imagine that this position could be lost, but as it turned out, it can."

This also brings to an end the 10 year World Championship reign of Magnus Carlsen at least for the moment, he is still World Number one by 60 rating points.