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The World Chess Championship 2023 was a chess match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren to determine the new World Chess Champion. The match took place in Astana, Kazakhstan, from 9 April to 30 April 2023, and was a best of 14 games, plus tiebreaks.[1]

Ding gained a place in the Candidates only because Sergey Karjakin, whom he replaced, was sanctioned for supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine. Ding had been unable to play throughout much of the COVID-19 pandemic, however, and had to play a number of hastily arranged matches to reach the minimum FIDE activity requirements to secure his place in the tournament. Nepomniachtchi won the Candidates, but Ding secured second place by beating Hikaru Nakamura in a must-win final-round game. Carlsen then relinquished his title, allowing Ding to play for the title despite not winning the Candidates. Nepomniachtchi took the lead three times during the match, but Ding evened the score each time, forcing a tiebreak. After three draws in the rapid tiebreaks, Ding won the fourth game to take the championship. Ding's path to winning the title was called "most improbable" by The Guardian.[6][7]

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The previous World Champion was Magnus Carlsen, who first won the title in 2013. To keep the title, Carlsen was periodically required to defend it in a championship match against a challenger, determined by a Candidates Tournament. Carlsen successfully defended the title in the world championship matches of 2014, 2016, 2018, and 2021. In December 2021, soon after the 2021 championship (against Ian Nepomniachtchi), Carlsen stated that he lacked the motivation to defend his title again, unless the challenger was Alireza Firouzja. Firouzja had risen to number two in the world rankings in 2021 at age 18.[8] In April 2022, Carlsen again publicly stated that he was unlikely to play in the next world championship, this time without mentioning any potential opponent.[9]

The Candidates Tournament 2022 concluded in early July 2022, with Nepomniachtchi its winner. FIDE and Carlsen were already in talks regarding the world championship match and its format.[10] On 20 July, Carlsen announced that he would not defend his title.[11] Therefore, the 2023 world championship match was between Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, the winner and runner-up of the 2022 Candidates Tournament, respectively, and Carlsen lost the title when the match concluded.[11][12][13] After Carlsen formally confirmed his decision in writing, FIDE officially invited Ding to participate in the 2023 world championship.[14]

The challengers were Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, who qualified as the winner and runner-up, respectively, in the Candidates Tournament 2022 in Madrid, Spain,[19] which began on June 16 and ended on July 5, 2022.[20] Ding qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2022 through his rating, as a replacement for Sergey Karjakin, who had been barred from playing by FIDE due to his comments supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.[21] Nepomniachtchi had challenged world champion Carlsen in the previous championship in 2021.

As world champion Carlsen announced after the tournament that he would not defend the world title, both first and second place advanced to the 2023 title match..mw-parser-output .sports-table-notes{font-size:90%;margin-bottom:0.5em}

The pre-match head-to-head score between Nepomniachtchi and Ding in classical games was: 3 wins for Nepomniachtchi, 2 wins for Ding, with 8 draws.[48] Their most recent pre-championship games, during the 2022 Candidates tournament, resulted in one win to Nepomniachtchi and one draw.[48][49]

Nepomniachtchi worked with second Nikita Vitiugov, along with Maxim Matlakov and Ildar Khairullin, while also consulting with former world champion Vladimir Kramnik.[50] Ding chose Richrd Rapport as his main second.[51] The other members of his team were Jakhongir Vakhidov,[52] a grandmaster from Uzbekistan, and two people from Peking University.[53] He received advice from Wei Yi and Ni Hua.[54]

Shortly after the beginning of game 8, a Reddit post pointed to two accounts on Lichess named "opqrstuv" and "FVitelli", and speculated these belonged to Ding Liren and his second Richrd Rapport.[58] The accounts had played games against each other which followed the openings of games 2, 6, and 8 of the Championship match. An account also named "FVitelli" on Chess.com had played a series of games against user "autumnstream" who self-identified as being from China, with the openings mirroring those played in the match. "FVitelli" changed their username to "ggwhynot" after the rumors emerged, seemingly acknowledging that they were at least aware of the reports. Many commentators considered the leak to be genuine, with Hikaru Nakamura stating that "there's zero chance these aren't their accounts."[59]

Ding, in the post-game press conference, provided insight into his morale during and following the game: "I'm not happy; I'm a little bit depressed. During the game, I felt a flow of inconsistency. In the first part of the game, I couldn't concentrate and think about chess. My mind was full of memories and feelings. Maybe I couldn't calculate because of the pressure of the match."[63]

The fourth game of the match, a 47-move win for Ding, was played on 13 April. The game began with an English Opening, Four Knights Variation. Nepomniachtchi's 9...Nf4 followed an earlier game won by Ding's second Rapport, leading Anish Giri to speculate that he had confused some of his preparation. This was later confirmed by Nepomniachtchi in the press conference. 14...Na5 was also inaccurate, as the knight would have a difficult time getting back into play while Ding created a strong central presence. Ding made the dynamic decision to sacrifice a pawn with 15.c5 in order to create an advanced pawn center. 23...f6 was a move Nepomniachtchi later called "unnecessary"; it allowed Ding to play 24.e6, giving him a passed e-pawn and a strong pawn chain, but in return Black was able to establish the knight on a strong defensive square at d6. Nepomniachtchi was still in the game until he blundered with 28...Nd4?, a decision former world champion Viswanathan Anand described as "insane".[78] Ding made the strong exchange sacrifice 29.Rxd4!, and after 29...cxd4 30.Nb3, the knight is ready to dominate the black position from d4.[79] Ding said he originally considered 29.Qd3 as a response, but found the winning move after thinking for just over a minute, while Nepomniachtchi confirmed that he did not see it until it was played. Even though the position was completely lost for Black, Nepomniachtchi played on, with Ding precisely converting his advantage. Nepomniachtchi eventually resigned on move 47, bringing the match score back to equality.[33]

The seventh game of the match, a 37-move win for Nepomniachtchi, was played on 18 April. In reply to 1.e4, Ding deviated from his usual 1...e5, surprising his opponent and the commentators by opting for the French Defence, an opening last seen in a world championship match in 1978 (played there twice by Viktor Korchnoi; both games ended in a draw).[87] Ding later confirmed in the press conference that he had "half-jokingly" suggested the French to his second, Richard Rapport, who then "insisted" that Ding play the opening. Nepomniachtchi chose 3.Nd2, the Tarrasch Variation. During the middlegame, Ding absorbed Nepomniachtchi's early pressure with accurate defence; however, by move 19 he was running low on time, having only 26 minutes to reach the time control with 21 moves to go. Despite this he found the strong exchange sacrifice 22...Nxf4! 23.Bxf4 Rxf4! 24.Rxf4 Bxe5, which gave him a strong bishop pair and some initiative; at this point commentators believed he had a slight advantage. With less than six minutes remaining on the clock for nine moves, Ding spent five minutes on the move 32...Rd2? (32...Be5! was best) which relinquished the advantage. He then blundered an important pawn after 33.Re2 Rd3?. Nepomniachtchi now had a winning position, and Ding resigned on move 37 with just 3 seconds left on his clock.[85][86]

The twelfth game of the match, a 38-move win for Ding, was played on 26 April. The game was a complex and error-ridden affair, with both players showing extreme signs of nerves. For the opening, Ding chose the Colle System, about which Nepomniachtchi would later say "I wasn't surprised," although he played the opening inaccurately and could have been punished with accurate play. Through the double-edged middlegame that developed after Nepomniachtchi allowed the shattering of his kingside pawn structure while having already castled short, play remained relatively equal until Ding made the first mistake with 19.Bc2?, allowing Nepomniachtchi to build pressure on Ding's king down the open g-file and gain the advantage after a series of further inaccuracies by Ding. Though not a mistake, Nepomniachtchi's 26...b4 was perhaps unnecessarily complicated when 26...a6 would have kept a more stable advantage.[97] Despite the complexity of the position, Nepomniachtchi played 27...Rag8? instead of the winning ...Nf3 quickly, which instigated a series of mutual errors with 28.Qc6? Bb8? 29.Qb7?? Rh6??, finishing with Ding finding 30.Be4, leaving the position equal.[42] Fabiano Caruana commented, "This is pure nerves at this point. It's no longer about chess." The game's newfound equality remained until Nepomniachtchi played 34...f5??, allowing Ding to take a free pawn with 35.Rxe6 and gain a powerful kingside attack. Nepomniachtchi spent 17 minutes thinking of a response to Ding's move, leaving him with 2 minutes and 36 seconds to reach the time control at move 40. Many commentators took note of Nepomniachtchi's body language at this point, associating "complete disbelief" to his expression. After a few more moves, Nepomniachtchi resigned, with Ding Liren equalizing the match with two games remaining.[98][99]

The fourteenth and longest game of the match, a 90-move draw, was played on 29 April. A win for either player would have resulted in winning the entire match and becoming world champion. Ding played 12.Ng5?!, which surprised many due to the fact that the knight could easily be attacked with 12...h6 (as in the game) and did not accomplish much, although the position was still near equality.[102][103] Ding's 34.Ke2? was a mistake (34.Kd2! was accurate), but Nepomniachtchi relinquished his advantage with 36...e5?! (36...Rb3! was better), and with 38.b6! Ding liquidated into a drawn pawn-down rook endgame. Nepomniachtchi tried to create winning chances with 61...Kd7!, but Ding found the only drawing move 65.f4!. Nepomniachtchi was unable to make any progress and both players finally exchanged off the pieces and agreed to a draw on move 90.[102] 2351a5e196