Chinese Chess Champion Ding New World: Gentleman, Killer, and Juventus Player

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The new chess king is Chinese and supports Juventus: Ding Liren, 30, from Wenzhou, won the World Championship by defeating Russia’s Ian Nepomnyashchi in a match in Astana, Kazakhstan. After a series of matches that began on April 9, the two rivals found themselves drawn. Ding prevailed in the final tie-breaker to become the first Chinese to win the title. The new champion immediately dedicated the victory to “his mother, family and friends”. Then he said that he would like to “go to Turin to watch the game Juventus, my favorite team.”

He then explained that “becoming world champion is not so important” and that during the match he was more interested in being “the one who plays better”. Ding, shy, polite, always smiling with everyone, has a lot of sympathy in the chess community. But when it comes to maneuvering pieces and pawns, it becomes deadly. Once, trying to describe his style, a specialist website called him a “quiet killer.” He was able to turn up at the time in Astana because the outgoing champion, Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, gave up a title defense he had held since 2013, mainly stating that he had little motivation to play with the current format.