A new chess champion has been crowned

by Buford Herndon, Reporter

May 17, 2023

As the new chess world championships began many people were wondering who would become the new champion. The former world champion Magnus Carelson stated that he would not be competing in this year's tournament because he doesn’t have much to gain from winning. This was an opportunity for some strong chess players to be seen in the light and not be overshadowed by Carelson. 

As the matches progressed, two players emerged from the fray. Those two individuals were Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Nepomniachtchi was projected to win the championships overall with a 56% to 44% vote according to Chess.com. 

At some point in the matches between Liren and Nepomniachtchi, Liren’s pre-match strategy games were leaked to the public. Nepomniachtchi now could know his plan of attack and build his own strategies to defend against them. Ding however, stayed resilient and drawed Nepomniachtchi in several games to advance to the final match. 

As the final match rolled around the players were given 25 minutes each on the clock. Ding was winning for most of the majority of the match. Nepomniachtchi made several mistakes which Ding exploited greatly to advance his position. After seeing how bad off his position was Nepomniachtchi resigned and Ding Liren became the first ever Chinese World Chess Champion.