China's Ding Liren defeated Russian-born Ian Nepomniachtchi in a tense match on Sunday to be crowned as the 17th world chess champion. The 30-year-old became the first Chinese man to capture the prestigious title after he won the rapid playoff by 2.5 points to 1.5, following the pair's 7-7 tie.
Ding's triumph means China holds both the men's and women's world titles, with current women's champion Ju Wenjun set to defend her title against compatriot Lei Tingjie in July.
"The moment Ian resigned the game was a very emotional moment, I cannot control my feelings," Ding was quoted as saying by Reuters at a post-match press conference.
Earlier, the scheduled best-of-14-games classical portion ended in a 7-all deadlock, with each player winning three games and drawing the remaining eight, taking the showdown into a tiebreak playoff. Ding's fighting spirit, however, made Nepomniachtchi resign after 68 moves.
Nepomniachtchi, who played under a neutral Fide flag after condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine, said he had so many promising positions and that he should have tried to finish everything in the classical portion.
“Once it went to a tiebreak, of course it’s always some sort of lottery, especially after 14 games [of classical chess]. Probably my opponent made less mistakes, so that’s it,” he was quoted by the Guardian.
The Chinese grandmaster takes the crown from five-time world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway who had defeated Nepomniachtchi in 2021. Carlsen, however, had abdicated his crown last year, saying he was not motivated to endure the months-long slog of preparation that the matches demand.
Ding ranks third in the FIDE rating list behind Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi. He will attend from May 4 the first tournament of the Grand Chess Tour in Bucharest, Romania.
