Traps, Tricks & Mistakes: Immortal Pin

In previous posts we have seen pins as tactical resources. A pin can be absolute or relative. Absolute pin means that the pinned piece cannot move because it is shielding the king. Moving that piece would be an illegal move. In a relative pin, the pinned piece shields a piece other than the king and it can be moved. Today’s example shows Ding Liren’s beautiful use of a pin.

Ding Liren is a Chinese GM and the 17th undisputed World Chess Champion. He earned the title in 2023 in a dramatic match against Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Ding was born in Wenzhou, China in 1992. His mother is a nurse and his father is an electrical engineer. Ding showed an enormous talent for chess from a young age. But at his father’s request, Ding completed a five-year law degree, even though he knew from the start that he didn’t like it at all. “These are things that I prefer not to talk about much”, says Ding.

Ding Liren started learning chess at the age of four. He is three times Chinese Chess Champion (2009, 2011, 2012) and has represented China in four Chess Olympiads.

Ding’s career to become World Chess champion has been absolutely unpredictable. In October 2019 he qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2020-21, but he had a poor start and finished in a tie for 5th and 6th.

During the years 2021 and 2022, due to China’s Covid strict travel restrictions, Ding couldn’t take part in the FIDE open circuit. Before March 2022, he was not even qualified to play in the Candidates Tournament 2022. But in an unexpected turn of events, in March 2022, the FIDE Ethics Commission imposed a six-month ban on Sergey Karjakin who had secured a place for the Candidates. That gave Ding the chance to enter the pool because of his FIDE average rating. However, he had still to meet another FIDE’s requirement of playing 30 or more rated games in a year.
n April 2022, with short notice, the Chinese Chess Federation organized an internal circuit of tournaments to meet that requirement and after playing 28 games (all in China), Ding completed the requisite.

In July 2022, Ding finished second in the Candidates behind Ian Nepomniachtchi who earned the right to play the World Match against the reigning Champion Magnus Carlsen. However, in a second unexpected turn of events, a few days after finishing the Candidates, Magnus Carlsen announced his decision of not to defend the title. So, according to the FIDE regulations, Ding Liren, as the runner-up in the Candidates, qualified for the match.

Viswanathan Anand, former World Champion, describes very well how unlikely it was for Ding to reach the World Championship Match: “He was literally the last-minute participant from the Candidates stage, and this was a miraculous journey all the way!

His match against Nepomniachtchi was an epic duel with dramatic games and tense draws. Because the final score after 14 classic games was level (7-7), the players went for the tie-break. They played four rapid tiebreakers. The first three ended in draws. The fourth is that one presented today. More precisely the critical moment when Ding surprised everyone with an unexpected self-pin.

The beauty of Ding’s 46th move led Magnus Carlsen to praise his successor congratulating him and saying: “Self-pinning for immortality. Congrats Ding!

With his victory, Ding became the successor of Magnus Carlsen as World Chess Champion. After 10-year reigning, Carlsen voluntarily gave up the title.


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