Ding Liren

Ding Liren (Chinese: 丁立人; born 24 October 1992) is a Chinese chess grandmaster who was the 17th World Chess Champion from 2023–24. He is also a three-time Chinese Chess Champion, was a member of the Chinese chess teams that won the Chess Olympiads in 2014 and 2018, and is currently signed to the professional esports club LGD Gaming. Ding is the first Chinese player ever to play in a Candidates Tournament and first Chinese player to 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. He achieved his highest classical rating of 2816 in November 2018 and a peak classical ranking of No.2 in November 2021 behind Magnus Carlsen.
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, becoming World Chess Champion, by defeating Nepomniachtchi 2½ to 1½ in the rapid tie breaks after their classical match ended in a 7–7 tie. He lost his title to Gukesh Dommaraju in the last game of the World Chess Championship 2024, reaching a score of 6½ to 7½.
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.
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. He is also the winner of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, beating Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the finals, and the 2019 Sinquefield Cup, beating Magnus Carlsen in the finals.
In August 2015, he became the first Chinese player after Wang Yue to break into the top 10 of the FIDE world rankings. In July 2016, with a Blitz rating of 2875, Ding was the highest-rated Blitz player in the world. 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. 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.
In August 2019, 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.
In March 2020, Ding played in the 2020–2021 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. During 2022, Ding was able to play three of the nine tournaments of the Champions Chess Tour 2022 winning the Chessable Masters where he beat Magnus Carlsen in semi-finals.
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 5 July. 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.
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.
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.
Prior to the 2024 World Championship match, Ding was widely perceived as a significant underdog, largely due to his mental struggles throughout the year. In an interview with Singaporean newspaper The Straits Times, Ding said, "It doesn't seem like I've been playing the way I used to… and their assessment is correct and I don't know if I will ever reach that level again." Oddsmakers gave Ding 3-to-1 odds to win, equaling roughly a 25% chance. Throughout the match, much analysis continued to center around Ding's mental struggles. Several commentators responded with admiration for his fighting spirit and confidence in several games. Grandmaster Anish Giri, following Ding's win in Game 12 to tie the match, said, "[Ding] seemed so broken, completely, yesterday, and now he plays an absolutely incredible game throughout, just all the way!"
Ding lost the championship and the World Chess Champion title with a 6½ score against Gukesh 7½. In game 14, Ding made a crucial mistake in the endgame by allowing his opponent to force a trade of two pieces while down a pawn, transforming a drawn position into a loss. Despite speculation that Ding would retire following the match, he stated in an interview that he would continue to play.
He is accompanied by his mother on his travels. In an interview with Die Zeit in February 2024, he said he was dysphoric and had problems sleeping. In November 2024, he was quoted as saying he simply no longer enjoyed his work and suffered psychological problems.