New, Old World Champion Torrent
Oleta Blaylock
The World Chess Championship 2023 was a chess match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren to determine the new World Chess Champion. The match took place in Astana, Kazakhstan, from 9 April to 30 April 2023, and was a best of 14 games, plus tiebreaks.[1]
The previous champion Magnus Carlsen decided not to defend his title against Ian Nepomniachtchi, the winner of the Candidates Tournament 2022, stating he was "not motivated to play another match".[2][3] As a result, Nepomniachtchi played against Ding Liren, who finished second in the Candidates Tournament.
Ding gained a place in the Candidates only because Sergey Karjakin, whom he replaced, was sanctioned for supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ding had been unable to play throughout much of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, and had to play a number of hastily arranged matches to reach the minimum FIDE activity requirements to secure his place in the tournament. Nepomniachtchi won the Candidates, but Ding secured second place by beating Hikaru Nakamura in a must-win final-round game. Carlsen then relinquished his title, allowing Ding to play for the title despite not winning the Candidates. Nepomniachtchi took the lead three times during the match, but Ding evened the score each time, forcing a tiebreak. After three draws in the rapid tiebreaks, Ding won the fourth game to take the championship. Ding's path to winning the title was called "most improbable" by The Guardian.[6][7]
The previous World Champion was Magnus Carlsen, who first won the title in 2013. To keep the title, Carlsen was periodically required to defend it in a championship match against a challenger, determined by a Candidates Tournament. Carlsen successfully defended the title in the world championship matches of 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2021. In December 2021, soon after the 2021 championship (against Ian Nepomniachtchi), Carlsen stated that he lacked the motivation to defend his title again, unless the challenger was Alireza Firouzja. Firouzja had risen to number two in the world rankings in 2021 at age 18.[8] In April 2022, Carlsen again publicly stated that he was unlikely to play in the next world championship, this time without mentioning any potential opponent.[9]
The Candidates Tournament 2022 concluded in early July 2022, with Nepomniachtchi its winner. FIDE and Carlsen were already in talks regarding the world championship match and its format.[10] On 20 July, Carlsen announced that he would not defend his title.[11] Therefore, the 2023 world championship match was between Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, the winner and runner-up of the 2022 Candidates Tournament, respectively, and Carlsen lost the title when the match concluded.[11][12][13] After Carlsen formally confirmed his decision in writing, FIDE officially invited Ding to participate in the 2023 world championship.[14]
The challengers were Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, who qualified as the winner and runner-up, respectively, in the Candidates Tournament 2022 in Madrid, Spain,[19] which began on June 16 and ended on July 5, 2022.[20][21] Ding qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2022 through his rating, as a replacement for Sergey Karjakin, who had been barred from playing by FIDE due to his comments supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[22] Nepomniachtchi had challenged world champion Carlsen in the previous championship in 2021.
As world champion Carlsen announced after the tournament that he would not defend the world title, both first and second place advanced to the 2023 title match..mw-parser-output .sports-table-notesfont-size:90%;margin-bottom:0.5em
Note: Numbers in the crosstable in a white background indicate the result playing the respective opponent with the white pieces (black pieces if on a black background). This does not give information which of the two games was played in the first half of the tournament, and which in the second.
The time control for each game in the classical portion of the match was 120 minutes per side for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting with move 61.[47]
The pre-match head-to-head score between Nepomniachtchi and Ding in classical games was: 3 wins for Nepomniachtchi, 2 wins for Ding, with 8 draws.[48] Their most recent pre-championship games, during the 2022 Candidates tournament, resulted in one win to Nepomniachtchi and one draw.[48][49]
Nepomniachtchi worked with second Nikita Vitiugov, along with Maxim Matlakov and Ildar Khairullin, while also consulting with former world champion Vladimir Kramnik.[50] Ding chose Richrd Rapport as his main second.[51] The other members of his team were Jakhongir Vakhidov,[52] a grandmaster from Uzbekistan, and two people from Peking University.[53] He received advice from Wei Yi and Ni Hua.[54]
Colours were drawn at the opening ceremony using a robotic arm assisted by artificial intelligence. Nepomniachtchi received the white pieces for the first game.[56] Colours alternated thereafter,[47] with no switching at the halfway point. Colours for the rapid games were drawn at the press conference after game 14: Ding received the white pieces for the first game.[57]
If the match had ended before 14 games (because one player reached 7 or more points), the closing ceremony would have been conducted either on the day of the last game or the day after. Had the match ended with the 14th classical game, the closing ceremony would have been held on 30 April. The closing ceremony was held on 1 May, due to the score being tied after 14 classical games.
Shortly after the beginning of game 8, a Reddit post pointed to two accounts on Lichess named "opqrstuv" and "FVitelli", and speculated these belonged to Ding Liren and his second Richrd Rapport.[58] The accounts had played games against each other which followed the openings of games 2, 6, and 8 of the Championship match. An account also named "FVitelli" on Chess.com had played a series of games against user "autumnstream" who self-identified as being from China, with the openings mirroring those played in the match. "FVitelli" changed their username to "ggwhynot" after the rumors emerged, seemingly acknowledging that they were at least aware of the reports. Many commentators considered the leak to be genuine, with Hikaru Nakamura stating that "there's zero chance these aren't their accounts."[59]
The leak could have significantly disadvantaged Ding, as Nepomniachtchi could prepare against these and other opening lines. When asked about the rumours during the post-game press conference, Ding said, "I don't know which games you refer [to]."[59][60] After game 10, Nepomniachtchi was asked if the leak affected his preparation, responding, "My team took a look. I wouldn't say it should be as hyped as it actually is. I am still more or less doing what I was going to do. We didn't change it too much."[40] After the conclusion of the Championship, Ding confirmed the leak in an interview, saying he "realised it left [them] with no real ideas, so [they] had to come up with new ones" during the match.[61]
The first game of the match, a 49-move draw, was played on 9 April. Nepomniachtchi began with 1.e4, with both players quickly playing into the Ruy Lopez. Nepomniachtchi surprised commentators with the rare sideline 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.Re1, and, in the words of Erwin l'Ami, obtained a "risk-free position and long-term structural edge".[65] Nepomniachtchi missed a tactical opportunity early with 14.Nf5 (14.h3! would have set up 14...Qxd4? 15.Nd5!!), but the game otherwise stayed mostly level until the move 25...c6?!, with Nepomniachtchi quickly playing 26.Rxd8+ Nxd8 27.Qf4!, forming a battery towards Ding's weakened queenside and gaining the initiative. With Ding low on time, a few inaccuracies by Nepomniachtchi (30.Ng3 and 31.f4) allowed Ding to force a trade of queens and consolidate his position, reaching an equal endgame by move 38. A draw was agreed on move 49 after just under five hours of play.[66][30][67]
Ding, in the post-game press conference, provided insight into his morale during and following the game: "I'm not happy; I'm a little bit depressed. During the game, I felt a flow of inconsistency. In the first part of the game, I couldn't concentrate and think about chess. My mind was full of memories and feelings. Maybe I couldn't calculate because of the pressure of the match."[63]
The third game of the match, a 30-move draw, was played on 12 April. Commentators noted it represented a much improved performance by Ding. The game, a Queen's Gambit Declined, followed a game which Ding had previously drawn as Black against Anish Giri in an online rapid game in 2022 until 17.N1e2. Nepomniachtchi later stated that he had looked at the game prior to the round. Ding identified 21...Nxd7 as a critical moment where he began to play for a win, but chose to invite a repetition after 27.Nb5 with 27...Nc7. In the post-game interview, Ding stated he had considered 27...d4 as a potential move to continue playing for a win, but decided it would have been too risky. The game was drawn by repetition shortly afterwards.[75]
At the post-game press conference, Ding stated, "I was not happy with the result. I was trying to play for a win at some point, but I couldn't find a way to break through. So, I think a draw is a decent result for both of us."[76] Nepomniachtchi made comments to the same effect, remarking that "The Queen's Gambit Declined is a very solid opening, so you're not going to achieve much. The most common case is when both sides play reasonably. It is hard to disrupt the equality."[74]
The fourth game of the match, a 47-move win for Ding, was played on 13 April. The game began with an English Opening, Four Knights Variation. Nepomniachtchi's 9...Nf4 followed an earlier game won by Ding's second Rapport, leading Anish Giri to speculate that he had confused some of his preparation. This was later confirmed by Nepomniachtchi in the press conference. 14...Na5 was also inaccurate, as the knight would have a difficult time getting back into play while Ding created a strong central presence. Ding made the dynamic decision to sacrifice a pawn with 15.c5 in order to create an advanced pawn center. 23...f6 was a move Nepomniachtchi later called "unnecessary"; it allowed Ding to play 24.e6, giving him a passed e-pawn and a strong pawn chain, but in return Black was able to establish the knight on a strong defensive square at d6. Nepomniachtchi was still in the game until he blundered with 28...Nd4?, a decision former world champion Viswanathan Anand described as "insane".[78] Ding made the strong exchange sacrifice 29.Rxd4!, and after 29...cxd4 30.Nb3, the knight is ready to dominate the black position from d4.[79] Ding said he originally considered 29.Qd3 as a response, but found the winning move after thinking for just over a minute, while Nepomniachtchi confirmed that he did not see it until it was played. Even though the position was completely lost for Black, Nepomniachtchi played on, with Ding precisely converting his advantage. Nepomniachtchi eventually resigned on move 47, bringing the match score back to equality.[33]
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