Ding Liren could fight Carlsen

This is Ding Liren's first time participating in a tournament featuring world number one Magnus Carlsen since winning the World Championship, at the Speed Chess Championship finals in September 2023.

After winning the World Championship in April 2023, Ding only played one more tournament, the Superbet Chess Classic, due to prior planning. Since then, he hasn't participated in any major tournaments, whether online or on a chessboard. After a four-month break, the Chinese player decided to return when he accepted an invitation to the Speed Chess Championship finals.

Magnus Carlsen (left) and Ding Liren at the 2019 Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Photo: Chess — Magnus Carlsen (left) and Ding Liren at the 2019 Sinquefield Cup in St. Louis, Missouri, USA. Photo: *Chess*

The Speed Chess Championship is considered by Carlsen to be the most exciting online speed chess tournament currently available, due to its format combining blitz and super blitz chess. Each match lasts 180 minutes, including 90 minutes of 5+1 chess (five minutes per side, plus one second after each move), 60 minutes of 3+1 chess, and 30 minutes of 1+1 chess.

This year's tournament brings together 11 invited players and five who qualified through the preliminary rounds. The tournament takes place from September 4th to September 22nd, using a knockout format to determine the champion. The prize fund is $140,000, with the champion receiving $15,000 and additional prize money based on score differences.

According to the standard chess rankings, Carlsen is ranked first with an Elo rating of 2,839, while Ding is fourth with an Elo rating of 2,780. In blitz chess, the Norwegian player is second with an Elo rating of 2,887, while the Chinese player has an Elo rating of 2,787.

Besides Dinh and Carlsen, the other participating players include defending champion Hikaru Nakamura, Wesley So, Fabiano Caruana, Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Nihal Sarin, Nodirbek Abdusattorov, Alireza Firouzja, Arjun Erigaisi, Gukesh Dommaraju, Du Uong Y, Vidit Gujrathi, Alexey Sarana, and Dmitry Andreikin. India contributed four players to the tournament, the most on the list.

The Speed Chess Championship has been held seven times, with Carlsen winning both of the first two tournaments, but Nakamura has dominated the last five years. The 2022 final took place just hours after the FIFA World Cup final, with Nakamura narrowly defeating Carlsen 14.5-13.5. This match attracted tens of thousands of simultaneous viewers and was highly regarded by the chess community for both its skill and entertainment value.

Xuan Binh

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