Ding Liren

Ding Liren (born 24 October 1992) is a Chinese chess grandmaster. He is the 17th undisputed World Chess Champion,^[1] defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 World Chess Championship to achieve the title. He attempted to defend the title in 2024, but lost to Gukesh Dommaraju.^[2]

In this Chinese name, the family name is Ding.

Ding Liren
Ding in 2024
Country	China
Born	(1992-10-24) 24 October 1992 (age 32) Wenzhou, Zhejiang, China
Title	Grandmaster (2009)[3]
World Champion	2023–2024
FIDE rating	2734 (January 2025)
Peak rating	2816 (November 2018)
Ranking	No. 1 (April 2023)
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

Early Life

Ding Liren was born in Wenzhou, a city in Zhejiang Province, China.^[4] He quickly became one of China’s best young players.

At the age of 4, Ding’s mother took him to a chess club, where Ding learned how to play chess.^[4]

In November of 2003 and 2004, Ding tied for first place in the U-10 and U-12 World Youth Championship.

Chess Career

Ding became a Grandmaster in 2009, at the age of 16.^[4] That same year, he won the Chinese Chess Championship, becoming the youngest player to ever do so. He later won the national title again in 2011 and 2012.^[4]

He became famous internationally for going on a 100-game unbeaten streak in classical chess from 2017 to 2018, which was a world record at the time, only being beaten by Magnus Carlsen in 2019.^[4]

In 2023, Ding Liren became the World Chess Champion. He won the title by defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in a tiebreak match at the 2023 World Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan. This match happened because Magnus Carlsen, the reigning champion, decided not to defend his title.

Ding has also played in the Candidates Tournament, which selects who will play for the world title. In 2022, he finished second in the tournament, but entered the World Championship after Carlsen withdrew.^[4]