How the War on Ukraine Shaped a World Chess Championship; the Sad and Incredible Journey of a Legendary Grandmaster Part 2

It often feels like the universe enjoys playing games with our lives, throwing unexpected hurdles in our way just when we are reaching for our goals. For Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren, his journey to the top of the chess world felt exactly like that—a series of bad breaks and unfortunate timing that almost cost him his career.

In this second part of a three-part series, written by Mohammed Shahil, we look at how a global pandemic and strict travel rules turned one of the world’s best players into a prisoner in his own home.

From the lonely struggles of lockdowns to the chaotic, changing politics of international chess, this is the story of how Ding Liren fought through impossible odds and a “curse” of bad luck, refusing to let his dream of becoming a World Champion fade away.

Just like how one day a bored God and Satan decided to play dice with Job ‘s good times, a series of unfortunate events befell on Ding.

The Curse

Covid 19 brought the world to a standstill, and the decline of the giant began. He got confined to his home in China getting constantly tested. In the online events, Due to the time-zone difference, he was forced to play at 3 am and 2 am in the morning. He started performing poorly, cracks began to appear, the wheels of what was once unstoppable started loosening, but not completely off, for the crazier part of his story is yet to be written.

The highest achievement in chess is considered to be becoming the classical world champion. Magnús Carlsen has been holding on to that title ever since he took it from Anand. The challenger for the title is determined through the Candidates tournament. Eight of the world’s strongest players will play a double round-robin in fourteen rounds and the winner will go on to challenge the world champion. Ding entered the 2020 Candidates as the second seed behind Fabiano Caruana, even though he was going through a tough time, he was still the world number 3. The Candidates was a disaster for Ding, he finished sixth. However, even during the struggle he created masterpieces, the third-round battle against Caruana is a game for ages. Ding refuting Caruana’s deep engine prep on the board was reminiscent of Frank Marshall vs Jose Raul Capablanca, one of the most famous chess games of all time.

The covid travel restrictions, particularly related to China, made it impossible for Ding to play any FIDE rated games in 2021 and his dreams of qualifying for the 2022 Candidates tournament hung in the balance.

The way to qualify for the candidates is either through rating or by being a top finisher in one of the 3 major tournaments, the World cup, the grand Swiss or the grand Prix. Ding qualified for the past two Candidates through the World cup.

All these events were happening outside China and Ding could not obtain visas on time. The chess world went forward while Ding stayed trapped in China as a prisoner of the endemic, he missed out on all the events but there was one more door, one spot was reserved for the highest rated player in the world, which was Ding.

But the curse stays unbroken. FIDE changed the rules, it was decided that the spot reserved for the highest rated player will go to the runner up of the Grand Prix instead, and officially all doors closed. Ding is out, the chances of him being the next world champion just became non-existent; however, the god of Job is always bored and he himself has said before, “look I am doing a new thing”.

As Ding was languishing in China, another chapter opened in the Sophoclean tragedy that is human history. Vladimir Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and a certain grandmaster was just too happy about it. Sergey Karjakin, a former world championship runner up, openly endorsed Russia’s actions. Now, FIDE is an organisation all for world peace unless the crimes are committed by the US or Israel, they banned Karjakin for six months.

Before returning to Ding’s story we need to take a digression to talk a little bit about FIDE’s blatant hypocrisy and the right-wing ecosystem of chess. After Russia’s invasion FIDE suspended the chess federation of Russia citing lack of compliance, the Russian players are not allowed to use their flags, their national anthem is banned, Russia is effectively outside of international chess. But this is not a standard that is universally applied. Live Genocide has changed nothing for the flag of Israel. Israeli clubs are always there in FIDE team championships. Of course, the biggest bully, the US, enjoys the best treatment, not only did the war on Iran change nothing for the American players, but they were also allowed to endorse it without getting banned. The Grandmaster community heavily leans to the right starting with the GOAT, Garry Kasparov himself. Kasparov is an extremely vocal critic of the left, He has openly supported the war on Iran and as you would expect, is a staunch advocate of Israel. Viswanathan Anand was so in awe of Narendra Modi when he shared his “Modi story” on Modi’s birthday. Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik was quite actively endorsing Charlie Kirk on X, American Grandmaster Hikaru Nakamura, the current world number 3, openly endorsed the war on Iran along with some other big names like Alireza Firouzja, a member of the 2800 club and Hans Neimann.

Coming back to Ding’s journey, Sergey Karjakin who just got banned was one of the eight players who qualified for the candidates and suddenly a spot became vacant. FIDE decided that it must go to the highest rated player, which of course was the dwindling dragon. Ding saw a light at the end of the tunnel but one after another the conflicts keep coming, being the highest rated player is apparently not enough, you need to have played enough rated games. Again, owing to the covid curse he was just short by 28 games but there was still some time left and the Chinese chess federation acted fast. They organised a 28-game event over the course of 2 months. Chinese grandmasters lined up to take a shot at the greatest player in the history of their country. The physics of chess ratings is pretty solid; Ding went through them quite comfortably.

The Frog prince got kissed by the war, or rather, thrown at the wall as the original Brothers Grimm tale goes, anyway, the curse broke, defying all possible odds, Ding climbed up from the well and entered the 2022 Candidates tournament as the top seed.

The eight players who qualified for the 2022 Candidates tournament were Alireza Firouzja, Jan Krzysztof Duda, Hikaru Nakamura, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Teimour Radjabov, Fabiano Caruana, Richard Rapport and Ding Liren. Ding’s first opponent was Ian Nepomniachtchi, the Russian grandmaster, better known as Nepo in the chess world, who won the previous Candidates. It was a disaster; Ding looked helpless and lost the first game. He was totally out of form, he made continuous draws after the first loss, the fabled prowess to squeeze water out of stone seemed completely missing. And when finally, he managed to pick himself up in the 9th round, it was already too late. Nepo was on a dream run, and it became impossible to catch him. However, Ding won 3 games back-to-back, from round 9 to round 11 but Teimur Radjabov closed that door shut before it even opened, he defeated Ding in the 12th round. The thirteenth round was again a draw against Alireza and Nepo had already won the 14-round tournament in just 13 rounds scoring 9 points. There is no point now in the 14th round other than determining a hollow second and third place, the only thing that matters is the first place.

I have always thought that boredom is one of the strongest driving forces of history, just like that god who said, “look I am doing a new thing”, a bored Magnus Carlsen, the modern-day chess god, said he will not defend his title unless Alireza wins the candidates but the chosen one had already fallen in the battle ground. Suddenly the 2nd place became as important as the first, if Carlsen chooses not to defend, the world championship will happen between Nepo and the runner up. Ding sees a flash of light again, but he is half a point behind Hikaru Nakamura, the American grandmaster who is also a former 2800. The 14th round final battle begins; it is Ding Liren vs Hikaru Nakamura. Hikaru only needs a draw to win as he is ahead by half a point. Ding is forced to win on demand, he opens with Pawn to d4 Hikaru responds with Knight to F6 and goes to a ‘semi-Tarasch’ variation of the ‘queen’s gambit declined’ in the opening. As the game progresses, Ding offers a queen trade, something a player looking to win never does, Hikaru happily accepts as he only needs a draw, a couple more trades happen, and the game reaches a point where only one move will give a winning advantage and Ding finds it. Hikaru tries to put pressure on Ding’s clock as he is very low on time, but Ding traps the black bishop with a brilliant rook manoeuvre, Hikaru succumbs and resigns the game. With 8 points Ding Liren grabbed the crucial second place of the 2022 Candidates tournament.

Read the rest of the story tomorrow in Part III.