Ding Liren defeats Boris Gelfand 3-1

On paper the match was as balanced as could be, with Boris Gelfand rated 2751 to Ding Liren's 2749 Elo, but that is where the similarities ended. Boris Gelfand has been a force to reckon with since the late 1990s, having stormed through the world championship cycle in 1993, beating Adams and Kramnik in matches, only to succumb to Karpov in the final match. Nearly 20 years later, in 2012, he fought his way to earn the right to challenge Anand for the world title. Although he entered this match handicapped slightly by age, since at age 47 he is more than twice his opponent's 22 years, his incomparable match experience had to be an equalizer.

Boris Gelfand also gave simuls to the many young fans in China

Ding Liren has been on the rise for some time, having won the Chinese Championship three times before he was even 20, but had trouble shining when he played outside his home country. That all changed for good when he helped his team win the Gold medal at the Tromso Olympiad in 2014 for a historic victory, and in the beginning of 2015, when he was one of the stars of Wijk aan Zee with his incredibly entertaining King's Indian wins.

The match was held in Wenzhou, China, a city whose name translates to "a mild and pleasant land", and derives its name from its climate, as it is neither extremely hot in summer nor extremely cold in the winter. It is a modest metropolitan city, by Chinese standards, with a population of three million people (2010 census), and the locale was the Overseas Chinese Hotel, a five-star establishment.

The start of the match and game one

The first two games showed the players like two boxers, feinting, observing and trying to spot any immediately obvious weaknesses. Game one was a King's Indian played by Ding Liren, just as the doctor prescribed, with Gelfand choosing the 9.b4 AKA "Bayonet" variation. White decided to simply shove his queenside pawns, innovating with 11.a4, but Black fought back on the same side, and his active rooks and powerful drak-squared bishop were enough to hold the balance.

Game two was a demonstration of just how well-prepared both players were. Gelfand chose a Gruenfeld, for which Ding was clearly ready, and they both rattled off 17 moves in ten minutes. Until then it was all well-known, and it was a position Cuban GM Dominguez had reached twice in 2014 with a draw at the end. Gelfand seemed uncomfortable for whatever reason, and continuously took off his jacket and put it back on shortly after. After the players shook hands on move 25, he requested a rest day before resuming the next rounds, but the schedule had already been set, and only five days were allotted for the match, the fifth day being for a tiebreaker should the need arise. His request was denied, a fact he was reluctant to accept.

Gelfand strolls, lost in thought. Time management issues would come to bite him.

Having been unable to achieve anything in game one with the King's Indian, the Chinese player showed he had more than one trick up his sleeve and pulled out the Slav defense as his alternate. This clearly caught the Israeli off-guard as he began to consume a great amount of time on the clock, and after ten moves was already 30 minutes behind. Ding Liren chose to use this to his advantage, and explained after the game that he had tried to play a little faster in order to put pressure on his opponent.  "After 30 moves he was very uncomfortable because of time trouble", he added. Gelfand replied by playing for a risky attack on the kingside, but this did not go well and after precise play by Black, it was repelled and he was lost. He put up stiff resistance, but was unable to save the game, and resigned after 75 moves.

The final game in which only a draw was needed to win the match, but Ding Liren fought for the win

Round four saw Gelfand choose the Semi-Slav as his must-win opening, but again he fell victim to time issues. Ding Liren repeated his strategy to play faster in order to pressure his rival, and it worked well as he found himself with a full hour more time by move 30. "There was a chance of a repetition", Ding Liren recalled, "but on move 35 I found a way to still fight for a win. White is at no risk, and Black will struggle to draw, so i continued fighting." This explanation was not without point since a draw was all that as needed to secure the match win.

This final victory meant not only winning the match by an impressive 3-1 score, but also earning 10 Elo, taking his rating to 2759, just six Elo short of taking over Aronian in 10th place.Ding Liren won US$20 thousand for his match victory, while Boris Gelfand left with US$10 thousand.

Photos by dsb.66wz

CCTV did a small report on the match

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 13 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.