Home ›› 08 Apr 2023 ›› Sport
Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi and China’s Ding Liren begin battling it out Sunday to become chess world champion after top-ranked Magnus Carlsen, considered one of the best players of all time, opted not to defend his title.
Neither Nepomniachtchi nor Ding -- the world number two and three respectively -- has held the world title, something that has never happened before in a world title match.
And while Russian players have challenged for -- or defended -- the title many times in the past, Ding is the first Chinese player to play for the game’s top honour.
However, whoever wins will still stand in the shadow of Norway’s Carlsen, who has held the title since 2013 and remains the top-ranked player.
Their match will be played out through April and possibly into early May at a luxury hotel in the Kazakh capital, Astana.
During his 10-year reign, Carlsen has seen off five challengers, including comfortably defeating Nepomniachtchi in December 2021.
He warned at the time that he might not be willing to defend his title again, confirming his decision in July last year, saying he lacked the motivation.
Nevertheless, Carlsen remains on the chess circuit, maintaining his number one world ranking, and picking up the world titles in blitz and rapid formats in 2022.
For some observers, he is not just the best player currently on the circuit, but the best to ever play the game.
Former world chess champion Garry Kasparov, who dominated the game during his 15-year title reign between 1985 and 2000, recently dismissed the title match as “an amputated event”.
“I can hardly call it a world championship match,” Kasparov said during a recent phone-in at the Saint-Louis Chess Club in the United States.
