World Chess Championship: Ding Liren grew to become the seventeenth world champion in historical past after defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in Astana final yr in a battle that went right down to the wire and was determined in tension-soaked tiebreaks. It’s a crown he’ll defend towards India’s Gukesh in a couple of days time.
But when issues had labored out even barely otherwise, Ding Liren wouldn’t even have been on the chair to face Nepomniachtchi. China’s Ding Liren had fortune favour him twice on the best way to incomes a shot on the World Chess Championship.
The primary piece of excellent fortune got here on the Candidates event in 2022. Ding Liren was not speculated to be in that version of the Candidates, the elite eight-man battle to determine a challenger to the world champion. At the moment, Magnus Carlsen was the world champion.
Ding Liren contemplates his subsequent transfer throughout a World Chess Championship recreation towards Ian Nepomniachtchi final yr in Astana.
However Ding Liren was prolonged an invitation into the Madrid Candidates in 2022 as a result of Russia’s Sergey Karjakin was banned by FIDE, the worldwide governing physique of chess, for his vocal assist for Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Underneath FIDE’s guidelines, Ding Liren was requested to play as a result of he was the highest-rated participant in FIDE’s Could 2022 commonplace ranking listing. What had additionally labored out in Ding Liren’s favour was the truth that within the March and April 2022 section, Ding Liren performed 28 video games in China which helped him achieve ranking factors and turn out to be eligible to be the highest-rated participant in FIDE’s Could 2022 commonplace ranking listing.
In that Candidates event in 2022, Ding bought fortunate once more. That double round-robin event, occurring at Madrid’s Palace of Santoña in June-July, was held within the shadow of uncertainty over Carlsen opting to forfeit his crown.
Since there was no official affirmation from Carlsen, the eight gamers performed with just one goal in thoughts: ending first and incomes a shot at Carlsen’s throne. The occasion ended with Nepomniachtchi ending first and incomes his shot with Ding second. Then got here the bombshell revelation: Carlsen selected to forfeit his crown. This meant Ding was once more handed an invitation to play within the World Chess Championship. The remaining is historical past!
