The crown was to be decided in quick games in the 25th minute. Author: taken from internet

China’s Liren Ding was crowned the new world chess champion this Sunday in Astana, the capital of Kazakhstan, after winning the title in a spectacular victory over Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, Telesur reports.

The crown was to be decided in rapid games 25 minutes after the draw between Nepomniachtchi and Dean in the fourteenth and last classical game of the final, played the previous day.

A seven-point hug at the end of this event had them looking for a tie-break with this method. According to press reports, with mistakes on both sides, Nepomniachtchi and Dean equalized the score in the first three games, but in the fourth game, the Russian did not catch the trap set by his opponent and eventually surrendered his king.

After the defeat, Nepomniachtchi told reporters: “I had my chances, I probably should have tried to find a game in the classical part. It was about one or two precise movements, ”he lamented.

At the age of 30, Ding becomes the first Chinese chess player to be crowned world champion. He will replace the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who dominated the chess kingdom for ten years.

Ding Liren is the first person of Chinese origin to become a world chess champion. Since the Bobby Fischer title in 1972, all men’s titles have been either European or Asian. China currently has the world champions for men and women (Ju Wenjun). Bulgaria will also achieve this in 2005 (Veselin Topalov and Antoaneta Stefanova).

According to the specialized press, rapid chess also contributed to determining the champion in 2006 (when the Russian Vladimir Kramnik beat the Bulgarian Veselin Topalov), 2012 (the Indian Vishwanathan Anand beat the Israeli Boris Gelfand), as well as in 2016 and 2018 (when Carlsen beat the Russian Sergey Karjakin and American Fabiano Caruana, respectively).

Source: Juventud Rebelde