6/30/2022 – Fighting chess was the rule rather than the exception in round 10 of the Candidates Tournament. All the players — except Ian Nepomniachtchi, naturally — chose fighting lines, attempting to win at all costs, as the event is coming to an end and first place is all that matters. In the end, Ding Liren and Hikaru Nakamura won and caught up with Fabiano Caruana in shared second place, as the latter overplayed his hand and was defeated by Jan-Krzysztof Duda. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage

6/28/2022 – Round 9 of the Candidates Tournament saw three players scoring their first wins of the event. The one drawn encounter was the showdown between Fabiano Caruana and Ian Nepomniachtchi, in which Caruana tried an offbeat line against his opponent’s Petroff but could not make the most of the small advantage he got in the middlegame. The winners of the day were Ding Liren, Alireza Firouzja and Teimour Radjabov. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage

5/27/2022 – Ding Liren won the Chessable Masters after beating 16-year-old Praggnanandhaa in the final match’s tiebreaks. The Chinese had won the first set on Wednesday, but saw his opponent bouncing back in the second 4-game mini-match. A clear rating favourite, Ding defeated his prodigious rival in the deciding blitz tiebreaker.

5/26/2022 – The first set of the final match at the online Chessable Masters ended on Wednesday with a 2½-1½ victory by Ding Liren over Praggnanandhaa. It has been a busy few days for the 16-year-old Pragg: the Indian chess prodigy shuttles between tournament matches and school exams. A second match will be played on Thursday — a draw will then be enough for Ding to win the tournament.

5/25/2022 – Rating underdogs Ding Liren and Praggnanandhaa moved on to the finals of the Chessable Masters after knocking out Magnus Carlsen and Anish Giri respectively. After drawing their first three encounters, Ding defeated Carlsen in game 4 to clinch match victory. Meanwhile, Pragg and Giri traded blows to take their match to tiebreaks. The 16-year-old Indian prodigy was stronger in blitz, and thus knocked out his famed opponent.

4/11/2022 – Ding Liren, currently the world's number three, has very good chances to play in the Candidates Tournament as the highest-rated, eligible player in FIDE’s ranking list published on 1 May. However, to qualify and to replace the suspended Sergey Karjakin, Ding needs to have played 30 FIDE-rated games from May 2021 to May 2022. When Karjakin was suspended by the FIDE for supporting Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Ding had just played four of the required 30 games, but now he is catching up: after a four-player, twelve-round tournament in Hangzhou, he played a six-game match against Wei Yi. After five draws, Ding won the last game and the match. | Photos: Imedia

4/5/2022 – Since it is likely that Sergey Karjakin will not play in the upcoming Candidates Tournament — his six-month ban is still pending a potential appeal — the spot left behind by the Russian will be filled by the highest-rated, eligible player in FIDE’s ranking list published on May 1. Ding Liren is the clear frontrunner in this race, but he only played 4 games since June 2021, with the regulations stipulating that a minimum of 30 games are needed to be eligible. Ding is quickly making up for lost ground, as three events have been organized in China to get him to play the 26 games needed by the end of the month. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

2/20/2022 – Ding Liren had the best start at the Airthings Masters online tournament. The Chinese scored 10/12 points after winning three games and drawing one on the first day of action. Ian Nepomniachtchi and Andrey Esipenko are placed second and third, while Magnus Carlsen is currently eleventh after losing in rounds 3 and 4, against Esipenko and Nepomniachtchi respectively. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

7/1/2021 – Two of the four quarterfinal matches at the Goldmoney Asian Rapid tournament were decided on tiebreaks. After winning the first set and the first game of the second set, it seemed like Magnus Carlsen was going to have an easy day at the office, but back-to-back wins by Wesley So meant it would all be decided in blitz. The world champion finally moved on to the semis thanks to a win and a draw in the 5-minute games. Levon Aronian also had a tough time against Arjun Erigaisi, but managed to advance, while Vladislav Artemiev and Ding Liren won their matches in the rapid section of the second set. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

4/28/2021 – Ding Liren, Kirill Alekseenko and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave finished the 2020-21 Candidates Tournament on a high note, scoring wins over Ian Nepomniachtchi, Anish Giri and Wang Hao respectively. Fabiano Caruana and Alexander Grischuk signed a draw. In his last interview of the event, Wang announced his retirement from competitive chess. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

4/25/2021 – An exciting round with four decisive results left two players as the main contenders to win the Candidates Tournament. Anish Giri continued his run of excellent form and beat Fabiano Caruana with the black pieces, but could not catch up with Ian Nepomniachtchi, who got the better of Wang Hao. Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ding Liren also won. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

4/21/2021 – In round eight of the Candidates, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave had a difficult endgame against Fabiano Caruna. "MVL" could have drawn but lost. In round nine, "MVL" again had a difficult endgame, this time against Ding Liren. The game ended in a draw but Ding Liren could have won. Karsten Müller took a closer look. | Photo: Lennart Ootes