Grandmaster (2009), three-time Chinese Champion (2009, 2011 and 2012), World Champion (2023). He will defend his title against Dommaraju Gukesh beginning in a few days (November 25-December 13, 2024).
Championships
<Youth and Junior> Ding Liren was runner up on tiebreak to Nan Zhao at the 2004 World U12 Championship in Heraklio. He placed =3rd at the World Junior Championship (2012), half a point behind Richard Rapport and the ultimate winner, Alexander Ipatov.
<National> Ding Liren (丁立人) first competed in the Chinese Championship when he turned 13 in 2005, scoring 3.5/7. He competed again in the 2008 event before winning the Chinese Championship (2009), becoming the youngest player ever to win the Chinese national title, This result also gained Ding the final GM norm he needed to be awarded the GM title. In 2011, he won the national championship a second time, when he took out the Chinese Championship (2011) with a round to spare, and two points clear of the field. Ding completed a hat trick of championship wins in China when he won the Chinese Chess Championship (2012) outright with 8/11, a full point clear of outright second placed Yangyi Yu. He narrowly missed a fourth championship win in the Chinese Championship (2014) when he placed =1st alongside Yangyi Yu, but came second on tiebreak. A year later, Ding finished clear second, behind fellow wunderkind Wei Yi at the Chinese Championship (2015).
<Continental> Ding gained his first GM norm, a double norm, at the 8th Asian Continental Chess Championship (2009). Soon after winning the 2012 Chinese Championship, he placed equal fourth (sixth on tiebreak) at the Asian Continental Chess Championship (2012).
<World> In 2007, Ding scored 6.5/9 at Chinese Zonal 3.5, failing to qualify for the World Cup (2007) by the narrowest tiebreak. He subsequently qualified for the World Cup (2011) as nominee of the FIDE President, but lost the first round rapid game tiebreaker to Filipino prodigy, GM Wesley So, thereby exiting the competition. He qualified by rating for the World Cup (2015) in the first round he played and defeated Canadian Tomas Krnan in the opening round to advance to the second round where he defeated Ernesto Inarkiev. In the third round he overcame Gadir Guseinov to win through to the Round of Sixteen where he lost to compatriot wunderkind Wei Yi to exit the event.
Ding finished second to Ian Nepomniachtchi in the World Championship Candidates (2022). After world champion Magnus Carlsen announced that he would not defend his title, Ding and Nepomniachtchi met for the title in the Nepomniachtchi - Ding World Championship Match (2023). Ding won in tiebreaks to become world champion.
Standard Tournaments
In August-September 2010, he was =3rd at the Florencio Campomanes Memorial Tournament in the Philippines, half a point behind the joint winners Le Quang Liem and Jun Zhao. In October 2011, he placed =4th with 6.5/9, a half point behind the three joint leaders, Jianchao Zhou, Truong Son Nguyen and at the 1st Qinhuangdao Open Chess Tournament. There followed =3rd behind Hua Ni and Xiangzhi Bu in the 3rd Hainan Danzhou Super Grand Master Chess Tournament held in June 2012 and =2nd (3rd on tiebreak), half a point behind the winner Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, at the SPICE Cup (2012).
In February 2013, Ding placed =4th with 7.5/10, half a point behind the three co-leaders at the Reykjavik Open (2013). In April 2013, he was invited to the category 20 Alekhine Memorial (2013) his 3.5/9 was near the bottom of the field, but against that it was close to a par for rating performance, and includes a brilliancy against the eventual winner of the event, Levon Aronian. (1) In May 2013, Ding Liren won the Hainan Danzhou GM (2013), a category 15 event, outright with 7/9. In July-August 2013, he came =2nd (3rd on tiebreak) at the category 19 Biel (2013) tournament. He placed =3rd at the Cappelle-la-Grande Open (2014), equal first at the Hainan Danzhou GM (2014) and 5th at the Petrosian Memorial (2014).
Ding Liren's best result to date came at the Tata Steel Masters (2015) in January 2015, when he scored 8.5/13 to place =2nd alongside Anish Giri, Wesley So and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, half a point behind the winner Magnus Carlsen. This result pushed him into the world's top 20 and became the second best player in Asia, second only to Anand. A few months later in July 2015, he played in the category 17 Hainan Danzhou GM (2015), placing outright 3rd with 5.5/9 (+3 -1 =5), an absolutely rating-neutral result, behind the winner Yue Wang and runner-up Hua Ni. He was equal third at the quadrangular round robin event, Bilbao Masters (2015), staged in October 2015, drawing all his games with a performance rating slightly below actual rating. He reprised his result at Wijk aan Zee when he again placed equal second at the Tata Steel Masters (2016) behind Carlsen and alongside Fabiano Caruana. During this event, he momentarily overtook Anand as the top Asian player in the live ratings.
Team Events
<Olympiads> Ding played board 3 for China at the Istanbul Olympiad (2012) held in Istanbul in September 2012, narrowly missing both team and individual medals when he scored 7.5/10 with a TPR of 2764. He played board 2 for China at the Tromso Olympiad (2014), winning individual bronze and team gold.
<World Team Championships> Ding played for China at the World Team Championship (2011) as a reserve, helping his team to win silver. Playing board 2 for China in the World Team Championship (2013), he won team silver and individual bronze and won the team gold and individual silver (on board 2) at the World Team Championship (2015).
<Regional Team Championships> Winning the the 2012 Asian Team Championship Chinese Team Selection Tournament qualified Ding to play in the 17th Asian Team Championships held in Zaozhuang, China in May 2012. There he won team gold and individual silver playing board 4 for China. At the 18th Asian Team Championships held in 2014, he won team and individual gold (for board 1).
<Summit Friendlies> He played on the Chinese team that lost to Russia in the Russia - China (2009) summit event. A few years later Ding was a member of the Chinese team at the Russia - China (2012) summit, which was won by China in the classical section, although Russia won the overall event. In April 2015 he helped China defeat India in their summit match in Hyderabad. Ding was also a member of the Chinese team in the novel China - Russia Challenge (2015) event, which involves one member of each team playing one game at a time, with the winner of the game remaining to play opponents from the next team until he loses, at which time the new winner "defends the stage" against the next opponent(s) from the other team. In his match up against Sergey Karjakin, Ding drew the classical game and traded wins in the two blitz tiebreakers before bowing out in the Armageddon blitz game that Karjakin drew as Black. The second half of the event was completed at the end of 2015, and won by Russia.
<National Leagues> Ding Liren's first FIDE rated game was at the 2004 Chinese Team Championship, when he scored 1/4. He has played for the Zhejiang team in the Chinese League since at least 2008 inclusive. During this time, his team took the bronze in 2010 and he has played 134 games with a 67.9% result ( +65 =72 -17) overall. He won team bronze in 2010.
Ding Liren played for the T.S. Alyans team in the Turkish Superleague in 2014, his team placing 5th.
Rapid and Blitz
On 13 May 2012, Ding Liren played in the 11th Asian Blitz Championship and placed equal second with 7/9, half a point behind Wesley So. He participated in the IHMS Mind Games staged in Huai'an in China in 2016. The Mind Games consisted of men and women's groups each contesting rapid, blitz and Basque portions of the event. He won the Basque portion (two rapid games played at the same time against the opponent) of the event after scoring 4/7 in the IMSA Elite Mind Games (Rapid) (2016), a point from the lead, and 17.5/30 in the IMSA Elite Mind Games (Rapid) (2016), two points from the lead.
Match
Ding Liren won the Ding Liren - Gelfand (2015) match held in July 2015 by 3-1 (+2 =2). He was eliminated in the first round of the China Chess Kings (2015) by Shanglei Lu.
Ratings and Rankings
Ding Liren's initial rating was 2230 in January 2004. He rapidly rose in the ratings, crossing 2600 in November 2010 and 2700 in October 2012. He did not fall under these benchmarks at any time since. He was one of the world's top juniors ranking in the top 20 from January 2011 exiting in January 2013 when he was too old to be qualified as a Junior. His highest ranking was world's #3 Junior throughout the 2012 calendar year. He also entered the world top 100 in May 2011 and has remained in that elite group on continuous basis since then.
His highest rating and ranking to date occurred in June 2018 when his rating climbed to 2798, and his world ranking to #4.
References
Everipedia article: https://everipedia.org/wiki/Ding_Li... Wikipedia article: Ding Liren ; Live ratings: http://www.2700chess.com/;
(1) Ding Liren vs Aronian, 2013
Kibitzing
