China’s world champion, Ding Liren, has become the forgotten man of chess due to his long absence from the board since he won the classical crown Magnus Carlsen abdicated last year. The No 1 has cited a lack of motivation to spend months preparing for title matches.
Ding gained many admirers due to his final tie-break victory over Ian Nepomniachtchi with its dramatic decider 46…Rg6! but his fans have drifted away in the course of his eight months inaction with to an unspecified illness.
Ding is the top seed for the 2024 renewal of the Tata Steel “chess Wimbledon” at Wijk aan Zee, where the windswept North Sea village hosts the grandmaster elite from 12 to 28 January.
The 14-player event is not as strong as usual. Carlsen is resting, while Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura, the world Nos 2 and 3, are preparing for the Candidates at Toronto in April.
Ding will face five of the eight Candidates: Nepomniachtchi, the Indian trio of Vidit Gujrathi, Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Dommaraju Gukesh, plus France’s Alireza Firouzja, whose last-minute qualification via the Rouen Open has been confirmed as valid by Fide. Another notable participant is Ju Wenjun, the women’s world champion.
At the ages of 20, 18,and 17 respectively, Firouzja, Praggnanandhaa or Gukesh can secure a place in chess history by becoming the youngest world champion, breaking the record set by Carlsen and Garry Kasparov, who both won the title at 22.
Ding is widely perceived as vulnerable, but in his best form of 2019, when he won the prestigious Sinquefield Cup, or 2017-18, when he played what was then a record run of 100 games unbeaten, he would be a formidable opponent for any challenger.
Hans Niemann, whose 2946 tournament performance rating at Zagreb was the highest TPR of the year, is in the Challengers section at Wijk, but the controversial American will be the No 2 seed with a special incentive to do well. The 2024 Challengers winner will be promoted to the Masters section in 2025. That is likely to coincide with Carlsen’s return and a high profile meeting between the pair.
The Norwegian journalist Tarjei Svensen has posed an interesting question on X: “Which record do you think is the most mind blowing in chess history?”
There were many replies. The most popular included Carlsen’ s 17 world titles in classical, rapid and blitz; Garry Kasparov’s 20 years as No 1; Bobby Fischer’s 6-0.6-0 in the 1971 Candidates; Caruana’s 7/7 start in the 2014 Sinquefield Cup; Emanuel Lasker’s 27-year reign as world champion; and Judith Polgar’s 2555 rating at age 12. Of these, the 27-year record is not all it seems. Lasker was a great player, but his reign included two 11-year periods with no matches.
Shreyas Royal narrowly failed in his bid for his third and final grandmaster norm at the Caplin Hastings Masters, which ended on Friday night. The 14-year-old from Greenwich needed a win in the ninth and last round, but after getting close to victory against the Ukrainian GM, Eldar Gasanov., he missed the best continuation at move 30 and had to settle for a draw by threefold repetition of position.
In Royal’s last three tournaments, he has missed the GM norm by half a point at the Fide Grand Swiss in the Isle of Man, achieved the norm at the London Classic, and now missed again by half a point at Hastings. He is still improving steadily and gaining more high class experience, so the GM title should arrive sooner rather than later. He also requires a 2500 rating, and is currently up to around 2475, a personal best.
Final leading Hastings scores were Abhijeet Gupta (India) 7.5/9, Pengxiang Zhang (China) 7, Royal and Ameet Ghasi (both England), Brandon Jacobson (US), Romain Edouard, Maxime Lagarde, and Pierre Laurent-Paoli (all France), Martin Petrov (Bulgaria), Deep Sengupta (India), and Gasanov (Ukraine) all 6..
In the endgame, small margins often make the difference between a win and a draw. Here, Royal v Zhang has just passed the move 40 time control, and White took just 45 seconds to play 41 Re6, with a draw a dozen moves later. Can you do better?
British juniors, who are present in numbers with the help of the John Robinson Youth Chess Trust, have performed well. Here the 13-year-old son of the online commentator checkmates an international master, thanks to sophisticated opening preparation.
3901: An all-checking sequence turns the tables: 1...Nh3+! 2 Kg2 Nf4+ 3 Kg1 Rxf1+! 4 Kxf1 Qh3+ and White resigned due to 5 Kg1 Qg2 mate or 5 Ke1 Nd3+ forking king and queen.
Royal v Zhang: 1 a3! Rxb3 2 Rb8! Rxa3 3 Rxb6 and White, with bishop for two pawns, has winning chances.
