This is just a first victory. But, if there is still a long way to go before the title of world chess champion is awarded – it is played in fourteen games – Ding Liren’s victory, on Monday, November 25 in Singapore, in the first part of the championship world chess It comes at the right time: the 32-year-old Chinese grandmaster, world title holder, had not won a single long game since January. To the point of not being considered a true favorite against his opponent, the young Indian (18 years old) Gukesh Dommaraju.
Ding Liren won after a game of more than four hours and 42 moves. However, he had the black pieces, which play after the white pieces, thus leaving the initiative to his opponent.
“Of course I was nervous. It would have been surprising not to be. “Once the game started I started to calm down… I think I was playing at a good level… but then I panicked.”explained Gukesh Dommaraju in the post-match press conference.
The latter, 5my World player but number one among juniors, he has had a meteoric career, becoming in 2023, at only 17 years old, the youngest player to cross the barrier of 2,750 points, considered the mark of “super grandmasters”.
After becoming world champion in April 2023 against the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi, Ding Liren disappeared for several months. In an interview with the German newspaper Die Tageszeitung in April, he explained that he had experienced depression. This year, his poor performances caused him to fall to 23rd placemy place in the ranking of the international chess federation.
The two players will face each other again on Tuesday. You must reach 7.5 points to win the world title, best of fourteen games.
