DING, un campeón kamikaze | El rincón de los inmortales 401

Liren Ding was crowned the new world champion on May 1st because he made a very high-risk decision, one that required great composure, intelligence, and self-confidence. It was the fourth and final game of the rapid tiebreaker at the World Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan. The three previous games had ended in draws after a 7-7 tie in the fourteen slow games played over more than three weeks. The Chinese player knew that another draw would be detrimental to him because he felt inferior to his opponent, the Russian Ian Nepomniashi, in the even faster blitz round. And he decided that the best course of action was to act like a kamikaze, pinning his rook on the king in a very complex position, with queens on the board, even though he had less than two minutes left on the clock. Nepomniashi, who had already accepted a draw and was repeating moves, was blocked, made a mistake, and had to settle for remaining the world runner-up. Meanwhile, Ding wept with joy and emotion: he was the first Chinese player to win the overall title after a ten-year reign by Norwegian Magnus Carlsen. OFFER | Enjoy all of Leontxo García's content with a half-price subscription to EL PAÍS: a full year's access to the newspaper for just 60 euros. Features, interviews, tournament reports… and his newsletter, ‘Maravillosa jugada’ (Wonderful Play), sent every Thursday. Take advantage of this offer at this link: https://elpais.com/suscripciones/digi... Subscribe to Leontxo García's channel so you don't miss any of the best historical chess games: https://www.youtube.com/c/AjedrezenEL... Visit our website: https://elpais.com/ajedrez/ #ding #chess #worldchampionship #carlsen #kazakhstan #magnuscarlsen #dingliren #niepomniashi #victory