Ding Liren wins quadruple round-robin in Hangzhou

by Carlos Alberto Colodro
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
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An unfortunate necessity

A number of rather unpredictable events had a major impact on Ding Liren’s potential participation in the 2022 Candidates Tournament. The ever-humble Chinese star could not make it neither to Khanty-Mansiysk (World Cup) nor to Berlin/Belgrade (Grand Prix series) due to China’s strict travel restrictions amid the Covid-19 pandemic — he also missed the Grand Swiss in Riga, although his compatriot Yu Yangyi did make it to the Latvian capital.

Moreover, for the first time since the return to the round-robin format in 2013, FIDE decided not to grant any spots based on players’ ratings. For Ding, whose lowest rating since May 2018 has been 2791, this left him with no chances of qualifying to the 8-player event. The chess community knows he is most deserving of getting a spot, but the rules are the rules.

FIDE’s Director General Emil Sutovsky explained on Twitter:

A sudden turn of fate, however, gave the 29-year-old a second chance. Sergey Karjakin, who qualified to the Candidates by reaching the final of the World Cup, received a six-month ban by FIDE’s Ethics and Disciplinary Commission, which will prevent him (pending a potential appeal) from participating at the tournament in Madrid.

As per the regulations, the spot left behind should be filled by the highest-rated player in the official ranking list for May 2022. A prerequisite to be eligible, though, is to have played at least 30 rated classical games between June 2021 and the end of April 2022. Again, due to the travel restrictions, Ding did not meet this criterion, as he only played four games in the period — all against Lu Shanglei in a match organized in December. 

Karjakin’s ban was announced on March 21, which meant Ding’s only chance to reach the Candidates was to play 26 classical games in a bit over a month while maintaining the highest rating of all eligible players — Levon Aronian is the closest chaser, as Alireza Firouzja and Fabiano Caruana are already qualified.

The Chinese Chess Association came up with a swift solution to the problem. First, they organized a 4-player quadruple round-robin in Hangzhou (12 games); then, a 6-game match against Wei Yi (6 games); and finally a 10-round qualifier to the Asian Games (10 games), set to finish on April 24. Ding already dominated the 4-player event and drew Wei Yi in the first game of their match. 

It is doubtlessly an artificial method to get him to play in the Candidates, but given the circumstances, it is arguably a justified — yet unfortunate — decision. Moreover, throughout the years, Ding has proven to be an extremely strong player as well as a fair, well-intentioned competitor.

Ding Liren, Magnus Carlsen

Ding Liren won the 2019 Sinquefield Cup after beating Magnus Carlsen in a rapid playoff | Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Hangzhou: 9 wins in 12 games

Ding’s 2799 rating was more than 200 points higher than the ratings of all three of his opponents at the quadruple round-robin in Hangzhou. In the end, Ding won 9 out of his 12 games, gaining 9.8 rating points thanks to his massive 10½/12 score.

He did get in trouble a couple of times, though. For example, in round 1 against Li Di.

 

Black has a clear edge, with his rook stuck defending against the passer on the d-file and the knights too slow to deal with another potential passed pawn on the queenside. Li needed to focus on these two factors, with moves like 35...Rb8 or 35...Rd8 both good to keep his advantage. Furthermore, 35...b5 was the most forcing winning move in the position.

However, Li faltered with 35...f6, which gave White a couple of key tempi to regroup — 36.Nd6 Re6 37.Ng6 fxe5 38.fxe5

 

Only now Li went for 38...b5, but White is already too active and has a clear advantage. Ding’s conversion was not clean, but he managed to nonetheless get the full point six moves later.

Not only did Ding win 75% of his games but, curiously, the three remaining participants drew every single game in which Ding was not playing.

Final standings

 

All games

 

Links

Topics: Ding Liren
Carlos Colodro is a Hispanic Philologist from Bolivia. He works as a freelance translator and writer since 2012. A lot of his work is done in chess-related texts, as the game is one of his biggest interests, along with literature and music.

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Zagliveri_chess Zagliveri_chess 4/6/2022 02:18
The goal justifies the means, I suppose. I have mixed filling about this. Ding is top 5 player for years. He is not a flare. Then the covid mess happened. Ding had subpar performance in most of those online rapid tournaments, likely in part because he was seriously handicapped by his time zone. No chance to play over the board. If he could play and had decided not to, it would be a different story. He deserves in my opinion to be in the candidates although the rush for a bunch of games organized by the State to meet the rules is as ethical as those bizarre tournaments in Eastern Europe Abhimanyu participated to break the youngest GM record.

The present development with Ding reminds me of Nikos Anastopoulos, a footballer in Greece, with brief presence in Italy's Campionato, who once had the chance to win the coveted gold shoe, or most-goals-in-a-year award in UEFA. Just before the last round of games for the Greek championship, Anastopoulos was two goals behind the European leader. In that last game, his team, Olympiakos, was awarded 4 penalty kicks. He took all of them. It was obvious that players of the opposing team were trying hard to help him by committing penalty offenses one after the other. Unfortunately for Anastopoulos, the goalkeeper did not 'play ball' and saved two of the penalty kicks. With the two scored, Anastopoulos shared the lead but a couple of hours later his rival scored another and won the trophy.
ChessTalk ChessTalk 4/6/2022 01:37
How many times has Aronian been ceded in?
Ajeeb007 Ajeeb007 4/6/2022 01:14
The whole thing smells bad. An action can be legal but not ethical. The writer claims it is arguably justified because Ding is an extremely strong player. This implies that if another GM, who isn't an extremely strong player, did the same then it wouldn't be justified. However, whether it's justified or not shouldn't depend on the rating of the player who is manipulating the system.
mc1483 mc1483 4/6/2022 12:35
"Not only did Ding win 75% of his games but, curiously, the three remaining participants drew every single game in which Ding was not playing."
We know what that means. Let's just hope it will be worth, and Ding would be finally let out of China in order to play the Candidates.
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