Ding Liren

Ding Liren
Ding in 2023
Born	(1992-10-24) 24 October 1992 (age 32) Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
Title	Grandmaster (2009)[1]
World Champion	2023–2024
FIDE rating	2734 (January 2025)
Peak rating	2816 (November 2018)
Ranking	No. 17 (January 2025)
Peak ranking	No. 2 (November 2021)
Chinese name
Chinese	丁立人
Transcriptions Standard Mandarin Hanyu Pinyin Dīng Lìrén IPA [tíŋ lîɻə̌n] Wu Romanization Tin1 Liq5 nyin3

Ding Liren (Chinese: 丁立人; born 24 October 1992) is a Chinese chess grandmaster who was the 17th World Chess Champion from 2023–24. He is also a three-time Chinese Chess Champion and was a member of the Chinese chess teams that won the Chess Olympiads in 2014 and 2018. Ding is the first Chinese player ever to play in a Candidates Tournament and first Chinese player to pass the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE world rankings.^[2] In July 2016, with a Blitz rating of 2875, he was the highest-rated Blitz player in the world.^[3] In July 2023, Ding became the No. 1 ranked Rapid player, with a rating of 2830.^[4] He achieved his highest classical rating of 2816 in November 2018 and a peak classical ranking of No.2 in November 2021 behind Magnus Carlsen.

Ding was undefeated in classical chess from August 2017 to November 2018, recording 29 victories and 71 draws. This 100-game unbeaten streak was the longest in top-level chess history,^[5] until Magnus Carlsen surpassed it in 2019.^[6] Ding ended up being the runner-up of Chess World Cups in 2017 and 2019 consecutively and came second in the Candidates Tournament in 2022: this qualified him for the World Chess Championship 2023 against Ian Nepomniachtchi, as Carlsen declined to defend his title. Ding won, becoming World Chess Champion, by defeating Nepomniachtchi 2½ to 1½ in the rapid tie breaks after their classical match ended in a 7–7 tie. He lost his title to Gukesh Dommaraju in the last game of the World Chess Championship 2024, reaching a score of 6½ to 7½.