The World Chess Champion perplexity
“I am convinced, the way one plays chess always reflects the player’s personality. If something defines his character, then it will also define his way of playing.
– Vladimir Kramnik
Hello chess aficionados,
Your all welcome to the blog space where chess education is the goal and growth for all is the characteristic view. Here we analyse the games and learn theories with discussion on the current hot chess topics.
This controversy rosed recently when GM Alireza Firouzja defeated current World Chess Champion GM Ding Liren and gave an interview where he said, "Yeah, I feel really happy mmm for sure the easier world chess champion than "MAGNUS"." Also, this becomes important when we know the fact that GM Magnus Carlsen himself said he would not defend his world title if Alireza Firouzja doesn't show something in candidates.
# Introduction -
"In chess, there is only one mistake: over-estimation of your opponent. All else is either bad luck or weakness.
- Savielly Tartakower
As correctly expressed in the above quote, chess at the higher level in classical is a pure form of perfect chess where accuracy is the most eminent criterion. Magnus has shown phenomenal dominance in this field. And for now, when Ding has taken over his title after Magnus backed down from the throne, The chess world has split into questions that are unanswered changes that are questioned. We will explore the overview of both the player's fandom of chess split, The title that has been categorized, and the statistical analysis of the situation. We will also look at the perspective of other GMs in this blog regarding these players. The carrier overview of them will also be helpful to get us a preview of why people are questioning
# FIDE Profile
1 - GM Magnus Carlsen -
Magnus Started playing chess at the early age of five.
By the time he was 13 years, 4 Months and 26 Days, he pulled off the title of "Grandmaster", which is the highest-ranked title a person can accomplish.
At the age of 19, He became the youngest chess player in history to be ranked world No. 1. In November 2013, Carlsen defeated Viswanathan Anand in the World Chess Championship 2013 to become a new World Chess Champion.
Currently, Magnus is the first highest-rated player in the world at a rating of 2853.0.
On chess.com magnus ratings are as follows,
Rapid - 2898
Blitz - 3259
Bullet - 3352
2 - GM Ding Liren -
Ding has been playing chess intensively since he was four years old.
On 6 June 2009, at 16, he became the youngest person to win the national title.
In October 2009, he became China's 30th Grandmaster.
In 2015 Ding entered the category of top 10.
In the year 2023, By winning game 4 of the rapid tiebreakers -after three draws - Ding Liren became the 17th undisputed world chess champion!
Currently, Ding ranks third in official rating after magnus and Firouzja.
# The Statistical Comparision
The following graphs are taken from the official fide site from Results
Statistics section.
These graphs are a comparison of the Magnus profile to the Dings profile.
# Totals Games -
With white -
With black -
Here we can see the complete dominance of magnus over Ding which is not unexpected.
# Rapid Games -
With white -
With Black -
Rapid has shown the same result. Magnus is dominating with white and with black, We can see some Ding action in the graph.
# Blitz Games -
With White -
With Black -
Ding is seen to have a good record with Black against Magnus in the Blitz section. Magus with Black is just unstoppable, as we know, Here we can see more than 50% domination over Ding.
If you think Ding has just weak records against Magnus. I want to tell you that Ding was called "MAGNUS KRYPTONITE".
Why? We will see this in the following topics, but before starting the topic of kryptonite, it's important to understand Dings's conditions and talent. It is also vital to take into consideration of his journey after the pandemic to reach the stage of his life.
# Pendamic - The challange to Ding
These can for sure be easily understandable from the graph from 2700chess.com,
If you notice 2019, Magnus had a bit of a fall during this time and was about to get into the elite mode of his carrier. Same time Ding was at his peak and the only opponent people consider the best challenger for Magnus for the Title. In 2020 the pandemic stuck and was a sizeable pause in Ding's life. He was unable to compete in top-level chess due to pandemic outrage. The graphs clearly show his straight-line break for two years. This break lead to the downfall of Ding as he returned. He missed out on the FIDE Grand Prix due to visa issues and, also in 2021, he could not play much over-the-board chess, presumably because of travel restrictions as well. And indeed, from a pure chess perspective, having a Candidates Tournament without the world's number-three player, who recently beat Carlsen in the Charity Cup's preliminaries, would be a shame. Magnus himself commented,
"I think he's clearly the best player who is not in the Candidates at the moment.
-Magnus Carlsen
# The Man Who Always Has to prove himself !!!
# Fight for the Grandmaster Norm-
In the 2009 Chinese chess championship, This field consisted of 12 Players. Out of which, 10 were grandmasters, including three grandmasters who were near or above 2700. They were GM Ni Hua, GM Bu Xiangzhi and GM Wang Hao. Ding, at this time, was only 2458 and the 2nd lowest rating of all the 12 participants. The odd despite against him, he stood at his stand securing 8.5 / 11. If you understand the severity and competition level Ding is facing at the age of 16, he was defeating the top Chinese grandmasters. Having played this staggering tournament Ding was awarded his Grandmaster norm making him officially a Grandmaster.
# Candidates failure -
Before candidates, Ding has to prove himself worthy of entering the tournament. For this, he went through a tournament of 128 Members single elimination called "The World Cup." Ding managed to pass all of the single rounds and managed to take down second-ranked GM Wesley SO. Ding lost the final to GM Levon Aronian in 'Rapid tie breaks' but was able to qualify for candidates since he was runner-up in the tournament.
This was a new experience for Ding to play against this elite level of players. He didn't manage to win but was able to secure 4 Places which is objectively a great result considering that he was the only player in the tournament to go undefeated with 1 Win and 13 Draws.
# 2022 Restriction for Ding -
Ding was out of professional onboard chess for 2 Years. In 2022 due to China's severe covid measures, there was no way for Ding to play abroad and qualify for the candidates. There was still hope for wild card entry but the card was in the hand of GM Teimour Radjabov. It seems that his dream of competing for the world championship title will be over. But as you know, God favours the man who has worked hard and is willing to give his best and take risks for his goal. Due to an against-rule tweet by one of the players from candidates, Fide decided to remove him and add a new player. Now the requirement was he should be one of the highest-rated players, which Ding was after Magnus Carlsen. But he failed in another requisite, which was 30 games. For this Chinese Chess Association organised three separate rated events on short notice. With a tight schedule and preparation, he was calm and completed the requirements and qualified for candidates. Not only did he compete he stood second in this tournament with the score of 8 / 12 with 4 Wins, 8 Draws and 2 Losses.
"THE MAGNUS KRYPTONITE"
Now that we know what Ding is capable of. We can easily say he is one of the greatest players who can play against Magnus. It's about the right time to understand why Ding was called Magnus "KRYPTONITE". As Seen in the graph above, Ding was in his prime form before the start of the pandemic. In the 2018 Shamkir chess event, Ding was the 2nd runner-up after Magnus Carlsen. Also, he was captain of his team in the chess olympiad the same year, where he went on to get first rank and individual gold by demolishing every opponent. This same year he came into the Top 5 players category by breaking the 2800 rating mark. The most remarkable achievement for which he is known is from August 2017 to November 2018- Ding played 100 matches with a non-losing streak. It includes 29 victories and 71 draws. This streak was the highest streak in top-level chess for almost one year, only after Magnus broke his record with a 125 Unbeaten streak. The streak consisted of 42 wins and 83 draws. 2019 marked a remarkable year as in Sinquefield Cup, Ding showed an extraordinary performance. It included the best 12 Grandmasters where Ding went unbeaten at 6.5 / 12 Only to tie up for first place with Magnus. To decide the winner there was a blitz match in which Ding won both of them. The chess world was moved by the fact that Magnus was undefeated in a tiebreaker for almost 12 years. Ding was then considered to be one of the best opponents against Magnus Carlsen in the world championship.
In other words, he became, " THE MAGNUS KRYPTONITE."
# Achievements -
# Magnus Carlsen -
Eight-time winner at Wijk aan Zee (Corus until 2010, currently the Tata Steel Tournament) in 2008, 2010, 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019 and 2022.
Also won the Category 21 Pearl Spring Tournament (2009) in Nanjing with 8/10 and a record performance rating of 3002.
Other victories in major events include
- Biel 2007 & 2011
- Aerosvit 2008
- The London Classic in 2009, 2010, 2012 & 2015
- King's Tournament 2010 & 2011
- Pearl Spring Tournament 2009 & 2010
- Bilbao Masters 2011, 2012 & 2016
- Tal Memorial 2011 & 2012
- Sinquefield Cup 2013 & 2018 (co-winner)
- Zurich Chess Challenge 2014
- Gashimov Memorial 2014, 2015, 2018 and 2019
- Qatar Masters 2015
- Altibox Norway 2016 & 2019
- Isle of Man Masters 2017 and
Grenke 2019, Zagreb (Grand Chess Tour) 2019).
- He represented Norway on board 1 at the Chess Olympiads of 2004, 2006, 2008, 2010, 2014 and 2016.
# Ding Liren -
Champion of China 2009, 2011 & 2012.
World Cup 2011 & 2015.
Represented China at:
- The Olympiads of 2012 and 2014, in the latter winning individual bronze for board two and team gold.
- The World Team Championships in 2011 (winning team silver), 2013 (team silver, individual bronze board two) & 2015 (team gold, individual silver board two)
- Asian Team Championships of 2012 (team gold, individual silver board four) & 2014 (team gold and individual gold board one) and
- Summit Matches vs Russia 2009 & 2012 (team was second in both), vs India 2015 (won), and in the Russia-China Challenge Match 2015 (team was second).
Ding Liren's best tournament win was in Danzhou (2013), and he was equal first in Danzhou (2014). He was equal second at Tata 2015.
In the world's top 100 ranked players since May 2011.
The above information is the distinction of Dings's talent and why he is one of the best players in the world. To the question where people think Ding being champion was luck, I would want to ask them,
Being the second rank in the world is luck?
Defeating Magnus in Sinquefield Cup is luck?
Playing unbeaten in candidates is luck?
Having 100 games to not lose in top-level chess is a part of luck?
Facts clearly state how good of a candidate Ding is as a champion.
# The World with two champions -
Chess has faced the same condition earlier in past where there was a world's best player and then another person as the world champion. In 1993, Nigel Short broke the domination of Kasparov and Karpov by defeating Karpov in the candidate's semi-finals followed by Jan Timman in the finals, thereby earning the right to challenge Kasparov for the title. However, before the match took place, both Kasparov and Short complained of corruption and a lack of professionalism within FIDE in organizing the match, and split from FIDE to set up the Professional Chess Association (PCA), under whose auspices they held their match. In response, FIDE stripped Kasparov of his title and held a championship match between Karpov and Timman. For the first time in history, there were two World Chess Champions: Kasparov defeated Short and Karpov beat Timman.
FIDE and the PCA each held a championship cycle in 1993–1996, with many of the same challengers playing in both. Kasparov and Karpov both won their respective cycles.
This was a political issue but, now we have a different aspect here. Magnus says he doesn't find the motivation to prepare for so long against the same opponent he had already won against. This is his and totally his decision and no one is to blame. We again have a clear distinction if we are searching for the best player, We know it's Magnus. If we say world champion, it's clearly Ding Liren.
# Personal Opinion -
To conclude the blog this blog, I will put my personal view. For me, Magnus is always a champion. When I started playing chess four years back, Magnus has always been the topic of discussion. I would see magnus games as a learning tool, youtuber would use magnus as the thumbnail to get views. So it's obvious we all have an attachment to him with all due respect for his talent and the creativity he brings on board. As I started understanding chess more and consuming more and more chess content, it was clear that many other people were trying their best to be 1. I also feel bad for Ian Nepomniachtchi who qualified candidates twice yet was unable to win the title. Ding did all the best he would have done played the London system and, won a game. He also took risks in the most critical situations. What categorised Magnus as a champion was Magnus was not afraid to take risks even in a tough spot, He would play what would be the best move. He would be resilient, composed, and calm to wait for the opponent's mistakes. Ding showed all these things when they needed the most. His Win remarked as "Pinning himself for glory." This was due to the fact, Ding declined the draw offer from Ian, pinned his rook, and later won the game. Magnus later tweeted,
"Self-pinning for immortality. Congrats Ding!!"
Also, In one of the interviews Ding, when asked about Magnus smilingly replies,
" We are not as professionals as Magnus."
We can see the mutual understanding and respect these people have for each other. For me, if Magnus is not the champion, Ding is the well-deserved man. In any sense, we are going to have more fun since there will be more changes and more challenges now.
Signing out for now,
See you in the next blog,
Till then,
"Let us all grow at chess together.
-Siddharth
If your till here,
