ISLAMABAD: China’s Ding Liren defeated Russian-born Ian Nepomniachtchi in a tight battle to become the 17th global chess champion.
The championship played in Kazakhstan between Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren went to tiebreaks after the classical part of the event ended 7-7 after 14 games.
Ding won the fourth and final quick tiebreak game on Sunday in Kazakhstan, winning by 2.5 points to 1.5 to become China’s first world chess champion in the open category. The 30-year-old is the highest-rated Chinese player in history, and China now has world champions in both the open and women’s divisions.
After Ding won the final, Norwegian chess grandmaster Magnus Carlsen, who is a former five-time World Chess Champion resigned.
In fact, the world No. 3 was only in the championship because Carlsen announced in July that he would not compete in the World Championship, putting Ding, the runner-up in the Candidates tournament, in line to challenge the reigning world champion.
Ding informed reporters that Ian’s resignation from the game was an extremely emotional time since he couldn’t control his emotions. It is Nepomniachtchi’s second world championship defeat. In his only other championship appearance, the Russian was defeated by Carlsen.
