Ding Liren became the new world chess champion after beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the rapid tie-breaks moments after it seemed that the match was heading for blitz tie-breaks. Everyone thought the players were about to repeat the position when Ding played Rg6 to self-pin his Rook and keep the game going despite having less than a minute on his clock. The increment was still 10 seconds per move which would change to 3 seconds in the blitz. Ding was able to win the game and with it the World Championships. Even though I was rooting for Ding and I was happy for him, I felt for Nepo because he has now lost two world championships in succession. In the last match, he failed to win a game and was beaten by Magnus Carlsen with several classical games to go. This time though, Nepo took the lead in game two and was never trailing behind Ding. He also failed to ever extend the lead to beyond one game even though he took the lead twice more but Ding leveled the match three times in total. The first time Ding took the lead was the last game of the match turning the Chinese player into the new World Champion. He has now ascended the throne abdicated by Magnus Carlsen. 恭喜丁立人。
