Chess is the most popular board game in the world, like every game or sport, chess has its championship tournament too. This event will take place in Astana Kazakhstan from 9th April to 30th April 2023 and will be the best of 14 games. Russian Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi will play against Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren. This event takes place once every two years and this year's tournament had some interesting events.
Carlsen Refuses to Defend His Title
Five times world chess champion and arguably the greatest chess player of all time Magnus Carlsen, refused to defend his world champion title against Ian Nepomniachtchi and because of this, the candidate tournament runner-up Ding Liren will play in this tournament. In December 2021, soon after Magnus played against Ian at the World Chess Championship, Magnus stated that he didn’t have the motivation to defend his title again and it is understandable since he has a lot of pressure, and it makes him feel that he cannot lose any match.
Format
The first candidate who reaches 7.5 points out of 14 matches will be the 2023 world champion. Each win gives the winner one point, a tie gives half points to both of the players and candidates don’t lose points if they lose. The winner will win one million two hundred thousand euros and the other side will have eight hundred thousand euros.
Candidates
GM Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi was born on 14th July 1990 and had the Grandmaster title in 2007. He ranks as second-best classic chess player in FIDE’s (International Chess Federation) Top 100 Chess Players April 2023 list behind Magnus Carlsen. It was always hard to play against him since he has a different and creative style. He had a shocking performance of 9.5 points out of 14 matches at the Candidates Tournament.
GM Ding Liren was born on 24 October 1992 and had the Grandmaster title in 2009. He ranks as third best classic chess player in FIDE’s (World Chess Organization) Top 100 Chess Players April 2023 list behind Magnus Carlsen and Ian Nepomniachtchi. He has a tough, positional style and great foresight ability. He won against GM Hikaru Nakamura with a shocking performance in the Candidates Tournament and had the right to play in the World Chess Championship 2023.
To sum up, World Chess Championship 2023 will be played between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren in Astana, Kazakhstan. 14 matches will be played and the first player who reaches 7.5 points will win the tournament. Both players have a very strong and original style of play, and the winner will win more than one million euros.
Bibliography
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ding_Liren
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Chess_Championship_2023
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Nepomniachtchi
https://www.chess.com/events/2023-fide-world-chess-championship