n an October evening in 2021, the who’s who of China’s chess world gathered at Beijing’s elite Peking University. The occasion was to celebrate the 30th year anniversary of the victory of Chinese chess legend Xie Jun, the first Asian woman to become a grandmaster and China’s first world champion. The location of the event wasn’t an accident — Beijing’s most famous university had, over the years, become a factory for China’s chess talent. Speaking to the students, Xie encouraged them to devote their talents to chess. One of the top Communist Party officials in charge of the university, Li Xiaopeng, hailed Xie’s example that evening and told the students to follow in her footsteps. “Life,” Li said, “is like a chess game”.
In attendance that evening was Peking University’s next great chess talent — and the latest heir to Xie’s mantle — Ding Liren (30), who had already made waves in China as a national champion and earlier that year, finished fourth in the Goldmoney Asian Rapid tournament (losing the third place match to Magnus Carlsen).
Few in Beijing that evening might have expected Ding to, less than two years on, replicate Xie’s success. On April 30, Ding was crowned world champion — China’s first male champion — defeating Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in Astana, Kazakhstan. China now holds both men’s and women’s titles, with Ju Wenjun the reigning women’s champion.
Stellar rise
Ding’s stellar rise has underlined China’s status as a chess power. Born in the southern trading hub of Wenzhou, Ding started learning chess aged 4. Like Xie, he went to Peking University, graduating in law.
As a recent State media profile revealed, his parents named him Liren after a Confucian saying: “Now the man of perfect virtue, wishing to be established himself, seeks also to establish others; wishing to be enlarged himself, he seeks also to enlarge others.”
His popularity in China derives not only from his exploits in the game but for his conduct off it. Ding is known for being low profile and humble. His national breakthrough came in 2009, when, aged 16, he defeated several experienced Chinese players to win a national championship, becoming the youngest in the country’s history.
Ding’s style is generally cautious, but also one that makes him one of the most difficult players to defeat in chess. His unbeaten stint of 100 games — over 15 months in 2017-18 — is proof of that. Remaining unbeaten for so many games is a remarkable feat and nobody had done it before him, though his record has since been broken by Magnus Carlsen, the strongest player the sport has ever seen. The new world champion is a solid player, and very few in world chess can defend the way he can. He is accurate, often finding the best possible moves, and is superb in the end-game. He is patient and has excellent nerves, which the world saw in Astana.
The world also saw another side to his game, as Ding surprised Nepomniachtchi with his 46th move: instead of opting for a draw by a repetition of moves, he chose to try for a victory. The match also showed another quality of Ding: resilience. He fell behind three times, but came back on each occasion, showing tenacity. His willingness to take more risks than he normally would have in the past also proved a major factor in deciding the match.
For China, Ding’s victory, as one State media article described, fulfilled a 40-year dream. China joined the International Chess Federation in 1975, and the Chinese Chess Association was only set up a decade later. In 1986, the association laid out a four-step plan, to win the women’s world championship, the women’s team crown, the men’s team championship, and finally, the men’s individual championship.
Ding, as the article noted, “brought that dream to fruition.”
(With inputs from P.K. Ajith Kumar)
