Legitimacy, redemption, history: the three themes underpinning the Nepo-Ding showdown

Momentous opportunity: If he finds a way past Nepomniachtchi, Ding Liren will make history and become the first male chess World champion from China. Photo credit: Rajeev Bhatt

Later this month, chess will have a new World champion — for the first time in a decade.

It will either be China’s Ding Liren or Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi (playing under the flag of FIDE, chess’ governing body, because of his country’s suspension following its invasion of Ukraine). They are facing off in the title match at Astana, Kazakhstan’s capital, from Sunday.

Neither, however, can claim to be the world’s best. That position belongs to Magnus Carlsen, the World No. 1 since 2011. He won the World championship in 2013, dethroning Viswanathan Anand in the latter’s hometown of Chennai. The Norwegian went on to defend his title in 2014, 2016, 2018 and 2021. He then got bored of winning World titles and abdicated his crown. 

Carlsen was supposed to play Nepomniachtchi in the championship match. But after talks with FIDE, he announced last July that he would not defend his title. He had given indications even before that, saying he would only be tempted to play the 14-game championship series if his challenger were the Iran-born prodigy Alireza Firouzja, now a French citizen.

But Firouzja had a miserable Candidates tournament, finishing sixth in a field of eight. For the uninitiated, the World champion’s challenger has to come through a Candidates cycle.

The 2022 edition of the Candidates, held in Madrid, was won by Nepomniachtchi in convincing fashion. He scored 9.5 points, remaining unbeaten, to earn the right to challenge Carlsen for the second successive time. The first time around, in 2021, he was crushed by the World champion — the last three games were not required.  

Ding was a distant second at the Candidates, with eight points, but everyone knew that that position would matter, given the likelihood of Carlsen not defending the title. It was a fine effort by the Chinese player to edge above Hikaru Nakamura, Fabiano Caruana and Teimour Radjabov.

Evenly matched

This is Ding’s first title match. If he wins, he will become only the second undisputed male World champion from Asia (Anand was the first in 2000). He is ranked No. 3 in the world with 2788 Elo points (peak 2816 in November 2018); Nepomniachtchi is No. 2 with 2795, his career best. Ding is 30 and Nepomniachtchi 32. They are indeed evenly matched, and it could well be a close contest.

S.L. Narayanan, the World No. 78 who has faced Nepomniachtchi, believes the Russian may have an edge because of his experience of playing a World title match. 

“The preparation for a World championship match would always be deep, with the ‘seconds’ doing a lot of research and that could come in handy for Nepomniachtchi,” says the Thiruvananthapuram-based Grandmaster over the phone from Spain. “Of course, he didn’t have a good time against Carlsen in that match, but, then, Carlsen is on a different level altogether.”

True. Carlsen is the strongest player of all time. He is only 32 and shows no sign of slowing down. So a World championship that is played without him will lose some of its sheen.

Former World champion Garry Kasparov, who reigned from 1985 to 2000, has termed it “a kind of amputated event”. He said the World title match should include the strongest player on the planet. “This match doesn’t,” the Russian legend said. “The match between Nepo and Ding is a great show, but it’s not a World championship match.”

Chequered history

This is not the first time the World chess championship has had to deal with the issue of legitimacy. In 1975, the Soviet Union’s Anatoly Karpov became champion because Bobby Fischer, the American genius who revolutionised chess, refused to defend his title after FIDE did not agree to the changes he proposed to the match regulations. But as Kasparov pointed out, Fischer stopped playing chess, Carlsen hasn’t.

Kasparov himself had broken away from FIDE and organised his own World championship. And there have been World champions — Alexander Khalifman, Ruslan Ponomariov and Rustam Kasimdzhanov — who were not recognised as such by most of the chess world.

“The issue of legitimacy is very much there with this World championship too,” says Narayanan. “And I hope Carlsen will return to the World championship cycle at some stage. I feel Ding could be a worthy rival to Carlsen.”

In 2019, Ding had, in fact, become the first player to defeat Carlsen in a match (a series of games between two players) since 2007, when he won the playoff of the Sinquefield Cup. But those games were played in the rapid and blitz format, not classical, which is the true test of a player’s strength.

Ding and Nepomniachtchi may not be as strong as Carlsen — he has 2853 Elo points — but Narayanan will watch their match closely. “Chess needs to keep this tradition of the World title match,” he says. After all, it’s a tradition that dates back to 1886, when Wilhelm Steinitz defeated Johannes Zukertort to become the first World champion.

Expert view: Viswanathan Anand runs an eye over Nepomniachtchi vs. Ding

It is going to be a very exciting World championship. I would say that both Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi are not only two of the strongest players but most interesting to watch as well. There is a nice contrast in styles, too. I think they are fairly equal in terms of ability.

I would favour Nepomniachtchi slightly because recently he has made dramatic progress and his victory in the Candidates tournament was very convincing. Ding played much less due to Covid restrictions.

Patience is one of Ding’s strengths. He will give his all in every position. He is much more stable and has this ability to come up with good ideas in his openings, which is all the more remarkable because he has a reputation of working alone. 

Nepomniachtchi has a little bit of unpredictability. He is very much an all-rounder. He is also incredibly well-prepared. I think he trained hard for his match against Magnus Carlsen. His touch of genius can become a weakness sometimes.

It is unfortunate for the World championship that Carlsen is not taking part. As an impact, the first Chinese World champion could be historic and could have a dramatic effect on the game.

As told to P.K. Ajith Kumar