Chess: China has its 1st world champion, defeating Russian – 04/30/2023 – Sport

In a dispute that mobilized social media in his country, Ding Liren, 30, became China’s first world chess champion after defeating Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, 32, in the fourth rapid tie-breaker this Sunday, in Astana, Kazakhstan. .

It was after seven points each, accumulated in 14 classic games played over three weeks, and ended with an emotional reaction from the two players, shown by the International Chess Federation also via social media.

Afterwards, at a press conference, Ding said it was a “very emotional” final, in which he could barely control himself. “It was quite a tough tournament for me, I feel relieved,” she said.

He recalled starting studying chess at age four and spending the last 26 playing the game, adding: “This game reflects the depth of my soul.” Now he says he intends to travel to Italy, to see a game of the football team he is a supporter of, Juventus.

Nepomniachtchi, or Nepo, as he is known, said that Sunday’s quick games were “lottery” and that he should have sought to end the dispute in the classics. He highlighted the second game, three weeks ago, when he had “a chance to win” but didn’t realize it.

It was his second defeat in a world final. The first was for the previous champion, the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, winner five times since 2013, when he defeated the Indian Viswanathan Anand. Carlsen withdrew from this year’s final, giving way to Ding.

The Norwegian congratulated the new champion. Days before, he had commented on a podcast from his country about how the matches between the Chinese and Russian were disputed, exciting, compared to his finals, with defensive opponents and a predominance of draws.

In China, posts over the past few days on Weibo and other social media already showed growing hope, with posts like “Come on, Ding Liren!” and predictions that he had a “high probability” of winning, due to his “psychological dominance” in the face of the Russian player’s “mental state”.

In the face of victory, messages spread that he “made history”. He was remembered that he started chess shortly after Russian champion Viktor Korchnoi visited his hometown of Wenzhou, which was then named “chess city” by China.

For the championship, Ding will receive 1.1 million euros (R$ 6.07 million); Nepo, 900 thousand euros (R$ 4.96 million).