This Should Have Never Happened...

he knows this might be the last few moves of his world championship oh my God you've probably already seen this clip by now a defeated Yan naachi looks at the camera as dingly Ren sits with his head down a few moves are played before Yan eventually resigns and dingly ren is the world champion but to better understand how this all happened we need to go back in time he is the world chess champion Al 30 then drives it in and they go ahead vishous J well the of the European Champions with the streets of Madrid celebrating Real Madrid's Champions League victory over Liverpool eight men on the other hand were getting ready to play in one of the most important tournaments of their lives the city was just two weeks off hosting something much much different the 2022 candidates tournament an eight-man chess tournament that would determine who would challenge Magnus Carlson for the coveted classical World Chess Championship however going into this the talk was not about who would Prevail to face Magnus but if they were even going to play Magnus see following his 2021 World Championship win Magnus cited a lack of motivation as a concern for his upcoming World Championship it was believed by many that Magnus would only play if he got a certain opponent and after yanomi dominated his second straight candidates going undefeated and winning with the most points since the format was introduced what everyone feared happened Magnus Carlson as of about 30 40 minutes ago has made it official to his sources and chess 24 tweeted about it that he is relinquishing the world championship title and has no interest in defending it historical reasons and and and all of that I don't have any inclination to play and I will and I will simply not play the match with Magnus officially being ruled out of the tournament Fay would take the candidates tournament runner up as the other parti ipant ding L Ren but the fact that Ding had even finished second in candid was a wild turn of events on its own due to many Chinese restrictions diging did not play many tournaments outside of China in the time period of the pandemic this made it hard from to qualify for the candidates because six of the eight spots were given the players with top two finishes in fed tournaments like the World Cup ding had missed the 2022 candidates due to his lack of play outside of China or so he thought see Sergey kakin someone who had already secured a sponda candidates publicly supported the invasion of Ukraine on social media this led the F Banning him for competitive play for 6 months for a violation of Ethics policies this ban meant he would miss a very important candidates tournament remove a strong competitor from the scene and free up a slot for a new player in the candidates the rulle stated the highest rated player who had not yet qualified would be added coincidentally this happened to be dingly Ren but there was just one problem he hadn't officially played 30 rated games in the past year a requirement that fate demanded despite still being unable to leave China the Chinese Chess Federation managed to organize three rated events in order to get ding to a minimum amount of games finally after completing his 30 Games ding had against all the odds clinch the spot into candidates despite beating the odds his candidates got off to a very Rocky start through six rounds ding was tied for last place in the candidates with two out of possible six points he would pick up his Pace after that with three straight victories in rounds 9 to 11 oh my gosh ding he smells blood he has become the shark he has become the shark in the second half of the tournament I believe that people think dingler can win every single game he plays I actually resigns he resigns the game is over Dingle Ren in clear second place and going into the 14th and final round of the candidates Yan had already clinched it with nine points and only one round remaining second and third place were he car wend ding on seven and 7 and A2 points respectively in a fitting turn of events the pair were each playing each other in the final round neither of them could challenge for first place but some uncertainty loomed over the match a win or a draw would secure he car a second spot in the Kandids and from a drawn position on move 33 hear moved his Bishop three times in a row giving ding a small Advantage after a brilliantly play an endgame yaru would resign on move 58 yaru unknowingly was just 20 moves away from his first world championship appearance and in one of the least probable turn of events thinging had made it all the way to the [Music] championship magnus's withdrawal loomed over the match to some the match was considered diminished due to it since the Chess World Championship title win in 2013 Magnus had been able to defend it four times consecutively holding the title for nearly a decade so when magnets gave up his title the legitimacy of the next holder was really put into question many believed Magnus could retain the title if he really wanted to and tried to which pumped a big Shadow of Doubt over this match former world champion Gary casprov echoed many of these doubts uh look um I can hardly call it a world championship match so for me the world championship match should include the strongest player on the planet and this match doesn't I'm not here to comment on magna's decision but uh it's um it's kind of amputated event so um and as you know I had my own history with f so that's why I'm I'm not going to change my view about fed the championship so it's a Pity Magnus is not there and naturally the match between uho and ding you know it's it's a it's a great show anyway but it's not a world championship match you know he was no stranger to World Championships having competed in five Fay World Championships despite all this experience his first remain as one of the craziest and most influential World chest championships we have ever seen on the board Bo in 1984 a young and upand cominging casprov managed to win the candidates tournament to challenge a much older and much more experienced kpov this match however had a distinct difference to all the previous ones they played to a target number of wins rather than a best of Series in this case the first person to win six games would be Victorious and this would prove to be a terrible blunder after just nine games karpov was up four to nothing many seemed to think that he would School the much younger Casper off but Kasparov would not go down without a fight Kasparov fought for 17 straight draws before karpov managed to deal his fifth win they drew four more times before Kasparov managed to pull off his first win 14 more draws later and Kasparov had managed to win games 47 and 48 bringing the score to 5 to3 48 games had never been seen in a world championship before and it was taking a toll on the players the match had lasted 5 months and the mental fatigue both players were experiencing was noticeably dangerous Fay's president Floren Campion decided to cut it short despite neither player wanting to stop declare that the match is ended without decision the match was played the next year from scratch but fiday would never returned to the first two format from that day on which brings us to today dingly Ren and Yan piai would play 14 games to determine a world champion whoever finished with the most overall points would be crowned the world chess champion game one opened with fui Lopez what most players consider to be one of the most principled openings in chess it's solid and safe neither player looked to take a risk early on as it might return costly in the long run both player made a few inaccuracies in the game but Yan held the edge in the middle of the game as dingl ran began to run late on time Yan played some inaccuracies and dig managed to trade the Queens down to an equal end game the two men agreed on a draw after 5 hours in a postgame interview dingly Ren would give an insight into his brain how what is your overall feeling after the game uh I'm not happy uh no unhappy I feel a little bit depressed I just cannot no I didn't think about chest so much and my mind was very strange yeah many memories um feelings also strange things happens I feel a little bit maybe I'm something wrong with my mind become maybe it's can CED by the pressure of the tournament and this would unfortunately foreshadow the [Music] future game two could be any more different from game one with the the white pieces ding was given the first opportunity to strike the first three moves were a standard Queen's Gambit but things quickly took a weird turn ding pushed his Pawn to H3 a move that had never been played in any Master's databases before this move threw everyone off including Yan as it can basically be seen as a waste of a move this move served a single purpose to confuse Yan into playing into a line that thing had already mastered and it worked as ding went up huge on time but ultimately Yan played incredible chess and ding Lan struggled B to control his time once again after Yan converted his Advantage brilliantly with Rook takes G5 D surrendered after just 29 moves and Yan struck first on the board thinging had lost one of the shortest games in World Chess Championship history in disastrous [Music] fashion chess is more than just a game it's psychological warfare over a board of 64 squares the slightest of a psychological Edge can cause a difference between winning or not at the world championship and dig was struggling mentally to keep up with the pressure Yan on the other hand seemed impenetrable he showed no signs of slowing down and he was in full control after just two games something he could not say after the previous World Championship in 2021 Yan won the candidates to challenge four-time World chess champion Magnus Carlson in their championship match the score was noted after five games until suddenly after the longest match in World Chess Championship history Magnus took the first win of the match after this game Yan would never recover the next five games of the match would result in three Magnus wins and two draws leaving Yan winless for the whole match a meltdown that many said was characteristic of yan you know this is really a nice position to get Yan in cuz Yan is like a snowball okay he uh if he goes downhill he's going to get bigger and bigger like he's like a you know it turns into an avalanche very quickly an unfortunate turn of events which Yan was set to avoid this year game three saw it open with the Queen's Gambit another very solid opening that was often played in high stake matches like this one interestingly enough the position that had been reached after 17 moves had only happened once before in the databases that game was played online the year prior by ding himself against giri and on his home ground ding manages to get Yan right where he wants him and develops a small Advantage but ding makes one inconsistency and loses all that Advantage because Yan can now Target that pawn on D5 after some back and forth the players would make a repetition after only 30 moves played what marked their great Improvement for ding showed a disappointing end to a great start of the game many noticed a greater attitude in ding he seemed to have relaxed a little and was not looking [Music] stressed ding opened game four by playing an English game it followed that typical forn nights English game as expected but at move n something interesting was noticed Yan played in inaccuracy by moving his Knight to F4 Yan played this move in 3 minutes indicating that it was some sort of prep most likely and there was only one game in a database that followed that exact set of moves and it was played by none other than Grandmaster Richard report in 2013 this is actually really important because report was dingly run second for this championship and he was on his team and helped him practice many believed that Yan had simply messed up his lines and was accidentally playing something that he shouldn't this allowed ding to develop a slight Edge over Yan into position but it doesn't look like it's going to stand for long as his pieces stay on the board Yan has an opportunity to barricade his pieces around his King and defend himself to squeeze out a draw instead he allowed a trade of Bishops and galloped his Knight into a ding's position this allowed ding to gain a complete control over the board for the price of a rook for a knight and at an evaluation of plus three thing managed to brilliantly convert the end game until move 47 where Yan had finally had enough the match was level at 22 Gotham chess encapsulated what minion the community felt after this match and he has won he he oh my goodness oh my goodness oh my goodness oh my goodness it's two to two it's two to two oh it's match on dingly Ren started slow but now the Slate is clean two to2 after four the excitement around the match was building chess one played perfectly is always a draw and the two best Grand Masters in the world with months of preparation usually play near Perfection out of the last five World Chess championships over 70% of matches finished in draws the idea of having a World Chess Championship like this where players throw Haymakers at each other was nearly unheard of in fact the last time a world championship match had drawn less than 50% of the matches was way back in 200 six the fans were excited to see more drama unfold at the world championships and we didn't really have to wait for [Music] long as esto was hit with freezing temperatures in a snowstorm overnight the world championship match on the other hand was just warming up Yan was not going down without a fight and with the white pieces in game five he wanted to make that very very clear the game would start with a standard ruy Lopez opening but it wasn't the moves plate that caught the viewers off guard but rather the time it took to take them through the first 22 moves 50 minutes of things time had elapsed meanwhile on the other side of the board Yan had spent am measly 6 minutes Yan's preparation was Elite and it was very no with all this pressure ding elected to play a very uncomfortable setup with his Knight and Bishop and all Yan had to do was push his pawns launching a monster kingside attack on ding after marching into ding's position his pawns and preparation were just too strong for for Ding and after 48 moves a dejected dingly Ren resigned to game Yan Strikes Back ding opened game six by playing D4 with the white pieces to the surprise of many on the third move thing put his Bishop on F4 choosing to employ the London system desite by existing for over 140 years the London system had never been used at a world championship match as it had not been favorable at this level of the game although it was very solid the London system relies on your opponent making a mistake it also takes a lot of work to receive a slight Edge over your opponent compared to other openings the London has also developed somewhat of a reputation in the chess Community for being a solid but very boring opening choice for many players will often end up with the same boring setup game after game after game even some of my early content was about but regardless the Chanda commentators loved it when the London system came out of the game yes surely he's not going for the London system or any other things associated to Knight F3 yes he does oh no oh no oh no the London okay I think half the viewership is already lost um out of protest a lot of viewers you know have logged out of our broadcast everybody hates the London but well well Yan took ding out of his prep early by playing a lesser known line Bishop F5 thing managed to quickly build a strong position but the common theme of time mismanagement lingered in this game too in a tricky position after ding's 27th move Yan had an insane line to salvage dis position in this position there was a way to relieve the pressure Rook takes E5 how because after d takes attacking the queen and the bishop black has an incredible resource Queen to d8 and if you take the bishop Queen D1 King King H2 Queen H5 and it's a draw it's a draw by Perpetual check it's a draw why cuz of this you stop guarding that and you lose the night so obviously that wouldn't have happened but with ding trailing on time as per usual in the previous games Yan tried to apply pressure to ding by playing a move in 5 minutes giving Ding A sizable advantage on move 30 with just 20 minutes of time remaining ding had to find some way to maintain his Advantage till a 40th move where both players would receive an additional hour of time on their clocks and he managed to do so by blitzing Yan King and growing his Advantage before even reaching the 40th move and on the 41st move we got to see the pure Brilliance of the World Chess Championship D burned through 20 minutes of time to play the move D5 to what seems like an innocent move to everyone including chess aom's engine in the live stream was nothing short of Genius ding was sending one of the most incredible mating Nets around Yan's King the order in which I can do it I'm struggling as well King H7 the de one yeah is deep one involved I don't think the Deep one is involved and I don't know why D5 had to be played for work I don't see what the you see it wait he's closed a mating that Anish the king oh wow okay we have to show this on the board I think I've come up with the idea let's uh jump in both players are away right now I think he wants to sacrifice his Queen and D5 does contribute here so okay there's a discovered check we assuming uh King H7 let's bring up the analysis board while Yan returns and now Knight G6 we were saying Rook G8 but Anish Queen F7 and I'm going to take this and Checkmate you oh that's weird look at this see I'm not uh this is not my strength checkmates I'm going to start I I'm bad at checkmates checkmating patterns there is a video online also where a bunch of top players check it's just not my strength it's just very difficult oh this is beautiful wow and this is why the D4 D5 push contributes you cover the E6 Square cover the Escape Square he saw this what was it five six moves in advance Yan SE on move 44 Yan would stop ding's Plans by resigning one of the most memorable World Chess Championship games in recent times had concluded over the board but it wasn't just done there in a postgame interview this happened why do you think there are more decisive games in this match than World Championship matches in the past ask me this question another day sorry ask me these questions like some another day all right we'll keep that what about you think I guess the reason is maybe we are not that that professional than [Music] Magnus a demonstration of both players personalities that would ultimately go viral to add to the story lines involved with this match the contrast between the players was beginning to become noticeable healing from Russia the pressure was on Yan to produce for long Russia has had the strongest chess players and Heritage dominating chess from the 1950s all the way to the early 2000s they were in fact so dominant that I made an entire video on their Dynasty but recently Russia has lost their grip on World Chess a Russian player has last won the World Championships in 2006 and with karakan failing to close out his game with Magnus in 2016 and Yan's unfortunate 2021 championship he had something to prove for both himself and his country thing on the other hand was not under as much pressure nationally China had not accomplish much on the men's side ding was the first true Elite Chinese chess player and he was the first Chinese man to make it to the World Championships matter of fact classical International chess isn't even the most popular kind of Chess in China the more traditional Jun variant is more popular in China Yan was looking to keep Russia's dominance going while ding was just looking to send his country into the line life for once their personalities also clashed on the board as previously mentioned Yan has a rather impatient nature and easily gets tilted often playing moves way too fast when he could have thought it through more thing on the other hand is the complete opposite almost too patient burning Through Time on easily findable moves where the options aren't as good two of the most talented chess players in the world with complete opposite paths one involved in full dominance on his way to the world championship and the other involved with many UPS and downs to achieve the same feat what was once presumed as a poor World Championship had turned into a spectacular show for everyone the players were nodded after six [Music] games Yan opened game seven with a pretty normal move E4 the most common first move in chess that could lead to various openings ding had previously been unsuccessful with E5 so ding continued to shock the world openings by playing E6 the French defense it had not been used in a world championship match since 1978 because it was a very difficult opening to understand as early as move for Yan began to look uneasy over the board he clearly was not ready for the French atypical to Yan he started spending meaningful time on his moves in the opening as he saw the opportunity to take the lead ding spent much time looking for moves and eradicated all time Advantage he had built up from the opening so much so that at one point ding had 25 minutes to Yan's hour smelling blood in the water thing starts hunting for a win with the black pieces after a myriad of exchanges in the center of the board ding is down a rook for a bishop and insanely active pieces staring down Yan's King and by move 26 both players had nearly 20 minutes remaining to reach the additional hour received that move 40 it was clear the game was about to unravel and at move 32 with ding pushing his initiative ding had 5 minutes to make eight moves [Music] Frozen guys it's it's a it's a tension his bud is frozen got moves to make he's got a minute to go he's got to [Music] go to the shock of all chess fans alike ding froze at the board he couldn't bring himself to play a move with just 45 seconds remaining thing would finally make a move but it was already too late he started blitzing out moves to try and reach a Time control on move 40 but by move 37 with just 3 seconds remaining it was all gone ding resigned and it was official the world championship had broken him he was on alltime low and the nerves that we saw early on seemed to be catching up to him with the next day being a rest day both players were looking to finally get some well-deserved time off after what was one of the most tension filled matches in the World Chess Championship history after a full rest day the two players returned to the chessboard for yet another Clash ding opens with D4 and after the first couple moves we find ourselves in a nimzo Indian defense from Yan a very edgy and modern opening that gives both sides a chance at winning ding would elect early to play a side line playing Pawn to A3 with both players fully in preparation ding would drop what he said was a cannonball of preparation with Rook A2 an obscure idea among top Grand Masters which involves supporting your pieces on the second rank in the future wend day move on move 12 ding brilliantly sacrifices Bishop for the activity on Yan's H file and at this moment something match breaking was happening but it wasn't over the board over on the popular Forum website Reddit something was brewing in the community a Reddit post had just gone up someone closely following the game had noticed something interesting two random Lee has accounts created in mid-February just one month before the world championship had played the exact same opening as game eight of the world championship move by move both accounts had 72 rapid games played and they were exclusively played against each other their games followed the exact openings from Games 2 and8 of the World Chess Championship before it even started they played very similar lines to ding's ideas including H3 as in game two Additionally the fvy account also existed on chess.com where it played 12 games exclusively against an account called Autumn stream which self-identified as Chinese and ding is Chinese obviously fans believe to have found a training accounts belonging to dingly Ren and his second Richard report the Autumn stream chess.com account got banned on February 12th after boasting some insane accuracy scores almost as if it was the second best player in the world playing and the day after the two Lee chess accounts were opened after taking notice to what the internet was saying the fatelli account changed his name to GG why not many were confident that these were training accounts for Ding and report to practice long distance looking at all these openings seeing the anti- Catalan seeing these early h3s which have already played seeing the these nimso lines which have also been played now in the world championship match there is no doubt in my mind after seeing the one system as well we've now seen three of the four three of the four um openings that Ding has played in this in this match so far being essayed essayed in these online games between the two players there's no doubt in my mind that this ding Lauren's [Music] account D lost possibly months of preparation due to this leak there were lines of the Petrov and Kings Indian on these accounts which ding lightly had to scrap due to this after the match ding would revealed that the league left them with no real ideas and that they had to make up ideas as they were going however game 8 was going on and neither player was aware that the leak went public with the previous bishop sacrifice ding's attacking odds are looking promising but for what seems to be happening every game ding is down by over 30 minutes to Y and on move 24 ding finally manages to get a great Advantage by ironically moving his Rook on A2 which he placed there on the ninth move through His Brilliant preparation the stars were finally aligning for ding he had built a plus seven engine advantage on the board a couple of moves later with ding knocking on the door Yan played Queen H4 sacrificing a full Rook for the possibility of repeated checks in a draw unbeknown to thing Yan is just bluffing Queen H4 is a bluff why it turns out after queen d8 queen E4 Rook E2 Queen B1 King D2 Queen B2 check here check here white is winning by sacrificing The Rook King to E4 and if Queen C2 there are no more checks I have never seen something like this the brave King needs to walk into the center of the board like this queen takes D3 and there is Queen F6 double queen and the king is safe this is sickening but with just 24 minutes to do nine moves thing must have gotten a bit scared of repeating the horrors of game seven and after just 2 minutes of thought ding fell for the bluff as he moved his King over to D1 all ding has to do is guard his precious pawns and attempt to win some of Yan's pawns but it's too late Yan sacrifices his Knight to win ding's powerful pawn and no progress can be made into position after this trades are made and a draw is finally agreed upon after 45 moves D's Elite Rook A2 preparation was all for nothing he let the plus seven Advantage slip right through his hands going on from now thinging would have quite the uphill battle ding's success so far just couldn't be attributed to himself the youngsung hero in all of this is his second and training partner Richard report he played a massive role behind the scenes report is known for his creative ideas and radical openings ding chose report to be second because of this his play also complimented ding so well and made chess even funner for him he even said the main key has been my analyst Richard report he has brought all the creativity that was lacking with my openings he was the Mind behind the wacky openings that Ding had played such as the London or the French in fact ding had jokingly suggested the French before game seven to which report insisted that Ding played it Richard is not afraid to step outside the box to put ding in advantageous positions this was one of ding's strengths up until now and now the leak had put it all in Jeopardy he was down by a game in the match and the very next day ding would have to survive with the black piece of and a lot of his theory [Music] lost and the very next day Yan played the Roy Lopez with the white pieces the D3 Bishop C5 position that had been reached after a couple moves had been on the practice accounts a couple of times Yan started his attack early by marching his pieces dangerously close to ding's King hanging by thread here one wrong move could lead to disaster for ding apart from an exchange sacrifice which ding offered on the 26th move the rest of the game was rather peaceful considering the circumstances surrounding the previous five the grand Masters traded their pieces down to a pawns and Knight end game the end game is a clear drawn position since black will just sacrifice their Knight for White's extra pawn and checkmates are not possible with just a knight and a king regardless the pair pled out until there was noral progression remaining and a draw was a cre [Music] on with thing receiving the white pieces after rest day many were excited to see what he and Report had drawn up for our opening Choice after the supposed leak and for game 10 ding brought back the English opening after its success in game four the game had started out with the men blitzing out moves of theory in mere seconds after some shuffling of pieces a huge trade happens in the center leaving basically an even end game behind and with fan being up in the match he proceeded to play defensively to which ding could not break through on or create any counterplay whatsoever and for the second time in World Chess Championship history The Players would trade down to their bear Kings making a drw with just four games remaining in the match thing had to find some way to make up that onepoint deficit and he was beginning to run out of time [Music] Yan opened game 11 with his trusty ruy Lopez Yan with the white pieces wasn't too bothered to chase a win with three games remaining after this and a whole point advantage and played a solid defensive game while ding didn't want to overextend and possibly end his world championship on the spot this led to possibly one of the test World Chess Championship games in recent history with both players trading down to an equal Rook end game they would make a three-fold repetition by move 39 indicating the fourth draw in a row after a just 100-minute game ding was running out of time he had two more opportunities to secure a win with the white pieces in games 12 and 14 while Yan just had to squeeze out draws for the three remaining games as the tension built up on whether ding would manage to come back it was very apparent that games 12 and 14 would be pivotal in deciding our world chess champion despite being in the rough spot he was in thing wasn't counting himself out there are three games ahead you know in candidates I I win on the last game so anything can happens in the last three [Music] rounds with ding lightly depressed for a win in a match fans were eager to tune in to see what was going to be sort of a make or break moment for ding he started with D4 and Knight F3 oh looks like we're going to have another London system is what everyone thought until ding quickly sent the match into chaos by playing the cola system to Yan this may a rarely played at the top level chess opening developed in the 1900s it is however a rather unambitious and passive opening which is not what thing needed at this stage of the game but just like in game two thing is neglecting the main lines in order to get Yan out of his comfort zone both players were understandably nervous as the implications that this game would have on the overall result of the match was huge Yan shocked the world on move 11 when ding was threatening to take his KN and ruin his own Pawn structure and cause long-term weaknesses instead of preventing it as most players would do Yan walked right into the fire by castling on the same side this was the second time this match Yan had invited the doubling of his pawns with the last ending in a Yan Victory as both players geared for a bloody Kings Battle ding would play the first eror of the match with Bishop C2 this would be followed by Yan playing a perfect seven move sequence to seiz a minus two advantage on the board Yan had built himself a fortress at defenses many began to ride off the world championship here as Yan had winning ons and ding would have a steep mountain to climb if he couldn't find a miracle and with his back against the wall ding seemingly gets a glimmer of hope as Yan moved his Rook to G8 and instead of going for a seemingly free Fork of the Rooks on F3 at this point in the game a swinging pendulum of inaccuracies was set off both Yan and ding would take turns completely missing winning moves in just a minute and a half Yan played the move Bishop B8 and all of a sudden ding is winning but then he plays Queen B7 and now Yan is winning Yan then misses another winning move by playing Rook H6 and we find ourselves in equality in the game the magnitude of this game was clearly causing nerves and both players alike the one who would managed to conquer it set nerves would lightly become Victorious from this game and with both players running out of progressive moves with not much time remaining on their clocks they agreed to a what they didn't draw Yan played F5 a terrible move which the engine rates at plus five for ding sacrificing the E6 pawn and all shelter for his King and Yan realized immediately that he thrown away his lead walking away while swearing just to come back to put his head in his his hands he would spend the remainder of his time moping around and playing a couple moves before ultimately resigning D had tied it up and with just two games remaining the Slate was clean a once ritten off Championship was approaching its [Music] limits right the wild match of yesterday ding looked emotionless and stoic compared to Yan's uneasy look being superstitious Yan was now wearing a white shirt compared to the salmon colored one he was wearing for the past six rounds all the signs pointed to Yan being under immense pressure to help keep his world championship hopes alive with the world on his shoulders Yan returned to the board to play his favorite opening this Championship the Roy Lopez both players had come prepared with the first 10 moves being played an exceptional time and resulting in a unique position never played at the master level with a position that could accurately describe the series at the moment the board was full of tension every piece staring down at each other with no captures being made Yen will dro the first Mistake by playing Pawn to F3 and all of a sudden ding is pushing for a win with the black pieces with the initiative thinging plays a move that perplex most top players Rook to E5 not working to move the powerful knight but rather defending it and with a trade of pieces ding is down a rook for a bishop and a pawn going into to the end game for what looks like an exciting and interesting end game coming up well both players didn't see it the same way as they couldn't find any tangible ways to win without a huge risk as they would repeat moves and make a draw the world championship was going to come down to the final game one game to decide the fate of both players their whole life's work was going to come down to a simple game over a chess board of 64 squares [Music] on April 29th the two men walked into St R's aana Hotel ready to Crown a new Victor of the world championship if the dispute were to be unresolved the players would have to go to a rapid time format but it was now all in their hands all the blunders mistakes and brilliancies from the past meant nothing now a new match was about to start D prudently opened with D4 and Yan responded with the nimzo Indian defense as the pair were gearing up to have yet another draw on the big stage ding signal he didn't want such piece and started attacking with Knight G5 later sacrificing the knight in order to get a very harmful attack on yan yan easily manages to stifle ding's attack so much so that Ding had to spend 20 minutes thinking of a reply after a trade of Queens the players remain on equal material with identical pawns but thing is down on time as per usual in the match looks like we're heading for yet another draw until ding voluntarily trades off a bishop to damage his own Pawn structure to which Yan grimaced to and all of a sudden ding's position isn't looking too pleasant as we approach the endgame ding's chances are looking slim with lots of pressure on him ding plays King E2 a terrible move allowing y to trade into a winning end game ding plays King E2 and essentially loses is the game stockfish doesn't even realize cuz it's on a low depth but after the move Rook C3 black is winning black is winning why is black winning in this position because of the threat of taking the bishop for example if the Rook comes back black wins Rook D3 takes Bishop B5 game over you can defend the Rook but I'm going to go take take take take this is a winning end game three pawns four pawns my king runs over here you go win this Pawn I win the rest of the pawns not only do I win the game I win the world championship this is nuts Rook C3 and yanomi is winning and as if this world championship had not offered enough twist and turns Yan doesn't find it and instead after ding's check Ops to push his ewn and with just 3 minutes left on the clock thing would find a brilliant sequence to drag both players into a forced rook and pawn endgame while each reaching their extra hour of added time up a flank Pawn Yan's endgame hopes for a win were looking slim regardless the two strung out the end game and Yan put a valiant effort to breakr but ding ultimately found a defensive resource to save the game by sacrificing his F Pawn and the pair would agree on a draw after a grueling 90 move game a winner could not be decided in 14 games the World Chess Championship was going to go to tie [Music] breaks the pair would begin to play a best of four series of 25-minute games with 10 seconds added for each move if no Victor emerges from that then they play a series of two 5 plus three games and if that still doesn't solve anything then they plays that series again and if there isn't a result by now then they play sudden death 3 plus two Blitz for the world title not to mention all these games were going to be played in one day the opportunity was Monumental we as the fans were about to be treated to one of the biggest spectacles of the year more time scrambles less time to think and even more blunders nerves were going to play a central role here and these nervous recks were about to enter a frenzy ding's patience and time hungry nature would be a gigantic disadvantage the shorter the game got would he be able to adapt well historically he's won more than Yan in a rapid time format with 7even wins eight draws and six losses but if Yan can managed to bring it the blitz it could get very dangerous for ding as Yan holds a scary head-to-head advantage of 13 wins 13 draws and only two losses to ding who would be able to stand a test of time we were about to find [Music] out as ding Drew to White King yesterday he began with the white pieces he played D4 to which the players quickly entered a Seline with Pawn C3 one Queen sacrificed later and we found ourselves in a drw position with neither player really pushing for it and Yan ends up forcing a draw with the black pieces after a repetition after a short 10-minute break the players return to the board for the second time rer game Yan played what is basically routine for him now the Roy Lopez Yan had built himself a decent Advantage out of the opening which five time world champion VI n commented seems like why has something to work with but Yan played one wrong move and it fizzled out to a near identical end game to the previous game both players still played it out as the rapid aspect of the game still left room for error but it still ended undecided on his ninth game with the white pieces thing played an original opening they're ready ding wasn't looking particularly a fighting spirit in any of the tiebreak matches as he was in game 14 while Yan seemed to try and force draws with black so we could win with the white pieces and they treat down to a bishop and Rook end game the key part of this is the fact that they hold opposite colored Bishops and end games with opposite colored Bishops often tend to lead to draws even when one side is up one to three pawns because they can just create a blockade using their Bishop which the other side won't be able to Target due to their's being on the opposite color this tends to Hal all progress in the positions and end up in a draw and this game followed that exact same path this was the third straight tiebreak draw the winner of this game would win the whole world championship outright if nothing was decided we would go to Blitz where Yan held a considerable Edge over Ding and what else would Yan play but the ruy Lopez again this one followed the exact same first 11 moves as game 16 but the stale boring past three games were nothing on this one both players seem to be playing moves indicated they wanted a decisive game and ding started gearing his pieces for a king samide attack with F5 but Yan defends masterfully and at the end of all the exchanges Yan find himself up a pawn and 12 minutes to ding six Yan quickly allows dink to recapture and we find ourselves in an edgy and hard to call end game either side could really bring it home here and with 90 seconds left on ding's clock we begin to see a repetition of checks from Yan offering a draw and in front of a peak World Championship viewership of over 570,000 across all of chest alcom streams thing played The Sensational Rook G6 signaling he wants a win not a draw the Rooks are traded off as ding's pawns storm down the board both players have barely any time remaining [Music] [Music] oh my goodness and pom he sits up in his chair but he knows this might be the last few moves of his world championship oh my [Music] god oh you see it he he up he knows it now Bishop takes A4 is easy up breaking it's over dingen is the world chess champion wow he has made history as the first Chinese player to Wi win the World Championship we see handshakes that thing is overtaken by emotions he and in the chaos of this historic time scramble the new world chess champion have been crowned ding L Ren Against All Odds thing got his first lead of the match in the last game completing one of the least probable World Chess Championship comebacks of all time he wasn't even supposed to make it to the candidates but he did he wasn't supposed to make it to the championship match but he did now he had completed his Immortal run cementing himself in chess history chess is a sacrificial game both on the board and off of it 23 days of pure mind numbing calculations studying and stressing had concluded to Crown ding the Victor the path both players had taken to get here was brutally difficult involving sacrifices along the way but only one could emerge from The Narrow Path [Music] but the weight of such a crown is nothing to scoff at apart from the superb classic played by ding 4 days after the Championship he would disappear for over 230 days not playing a single tournament and canceling many appearances to said tournaments ding found it difficult to hold himself in such pressure filled shoes taking a spot of possibly the greatest to ever do it was difficult not to mention the thousands online who didn't consider him a legitimate Champion belittling ding's achievement as a product of luck rather than ability but the truth is every skillful thing in life takes some form of luck to make it happen success is always a combination of the right amount of skill and a Rand amount of chance and ding had made it happen with the cards he was dealt he was never supposed to be in his position but he adapted while some of his success could be chocked up to luck it would have never happened without his resilience there was seemingly nothing at the stage that Ding couldn't overcome there were multiple moments of Despair where ding looked like he was barely holding on for his hopes and dreams he didn't leave the world championship until the very last game he was run off into candidates as he had a poor start this is what ultimately searates ding from the rest he did what no one else could he is and will be the world champion until proven otherwise and many rushed to point out that Magnus Carlson would have defeated ding in said match if it took place doubting the validity of ding being being the best in the world and they can speculate all they want but players will always be defined by the Legacy they left over the board history never remembers the ifs the butts or even the maybe they remember the [Music] champions

Channel: TheCheckmateCorner

Views: 316,792

Keywords: Ding, Ding chilling, Ding Liren, Ian, nepo, ian nepomniachtchi, ding vs ian, Wcc 2023, world chess championship 2023, magnus carlsen, magnus carlsen world championship, Why did Magnus give up world championship, Ding Liren lucky, ding lucky, 2022 candidates tournament, 2022 candidates, Hikaru Nakamura, GMhikaru, Gotham chess, chess.com, FIDE, world chess championship

Id: VsbxZYFBDQw

Length: 49min 20sec (2960 seconds)

Published: Sun Mar 10 2024