Турнир претендентов 2020

Ding Liren

China
Rating
2791
standard
2836
rapid
2788
blitz
FIDE Titles: Grandmaster (2009)
Biography
Chinese family names do not lend themselves to translating easily, and there exist more than one spelling of this chess player's name. Ding Liren (in Chinese simplified 丁立人, in English Dīng Lìrén; born in Wenzhou on October 24, 1992). Grandmaster since 2009, he has taken up chess when four years old.

His peak rating is 2816 (as of November 2018). The current rating is 2791 (as of April 2021). He is currently number three in the world.

Aged 16 in 2009, he became the youngest Chinese player to win the nation-wide competitions. He is the champion of China (2009, 2011 and 2012). In September 2017, he became the first Chinese chess player to make it into the Candidates tournament. He remained the only undefeated player in that event.

Ding Liren's style resembles that of Tigran Petrosian's, which manifests itself in careful attitude to available resources and an excellent sense of danger. As a result, he is known to lose very rarely. In an event as strong and well-matched as the Candidates, the "+2" result may be sufficient to take first.

Ding Liren's non-losing streak in classical chess lasted from August 10, 2017 to November 10, 2018. This streak numbers 100 games flat and ended in Shenzhou, where Liren went down to Maxime Vachier-Lagrave.

Losing to the Azeri chess player Teimour Radjabov on October 4, 2019, Ding Liren finished second in the World Cup in Khanty-Mansiysk.

Note that Ding Liren is the owner of a unique achievement, qualifying into the final of two World Cups in a row (2017 and 2019) and going down on both occasions.
Also in 2019, Ding Liren won the St. Louis super tournament, sharing first place with Magnus Carlsen and then beating him in a tie-break blitz. This event is noteworthy in that Carlsen had not lost a single tie-break for more than 10 years, including the 2016 and 2018 world championship matches.