Ding Liren is the reigning FIDE World Chess Champion after defeating GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 World Championship. Like most world champions, a combination of dominance and close calls have defined Ding’s career leading up to winning the title.
Ding won his first Chinese Chess Championship at the age of 16, making him the youngest to ever do so. In the 2017 and 2019 Chess World Cup, he became the first player in history to reach the finals twice in a row. The latter result means that Ding would play in the 2020 Candidates Tournament, which decided who gets a shot at the world title.
Having only turned 30 in October 2022, Ding has already amassed an impressive chess resume. His three Chinese titles are joined by two team gold medals and one individual gold medal at the Chess Olympiads (plus one team gold medal at the World Team Championships).
From August 2017 to November 2018, Ding held a 100-game unbeaten streak in top-level chess competition—the longest in history until GM Magnus Carlsen broke it in October 2019. In 2018, Ding entered the world’s top-five chess players (May) and broke the 2800-rating mark (September), and he remains in those categories today.