Ding is a three-time
Chinese Chess Champion (2009, 2011, 2012) and has represented China at all four
Chess Olympiads from 2012 to 2018, winning team gold medals in 2014 and 2018, and individual bronze and gold medals in 2014 and 2018, respectively. He also won team gold and individual silver at the World Team Championships in 2015. He is also the winner of the 2019
Grand Chess Tour, beating
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the finals, and the 2019
Sinquefield Cup, beating
Magnus Carlsen in the finals.
2015–2019 In August 2015, he became the first Chinese player after
Wang Yue to break into the top 10 of the FIDE
world rankings. In July 2016, with a
Blitz rating of 2875, Ding was the highest-rated Blitz player in the world. the penultimate stage in the
World Championship. At the
Candidates Tournament 2018, Ding placed 4th with 1 win and 13 draws, the only candidate without a loss at the event. In September, Ding became the first Chinese player to pass the 2800 Elo mark on the
FIDE world rankings, and in November he reached a rating of 2816, the
joint-tenth highest rating in history. This brought him to ranked 4th in the world for that month. In August 2019, Ding tied first in the
Sinquefield Cup with a score of 6½/11 (+2−0=9) with a performance rating of 2845. He won the tournament after beating Magnus Carlsen in the playoffs, drawing both games in the rapid portion and winning 2–0 in the blitz portion. In October of the same year, Ding qualified for the
2020–21 Candidates Tournament by finishing 2nd place in the
World Cup for the second time in a row. He lost to
Teimour Radjabov in the finals after drawing the classical games (+1−1=2), the rapid tiebreaks (+0−0=4), before losing 2–0 in the blitz tiebreaks. Along with Magnus Carlsen,
Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and
Levon Aronian, he was a 2019
Grand Chess Tour finalist. Ding went on to win the Grand Chess Tour final, beating Aronian in the semi-finals and Vachier-Lagrave in the finals.
2020–2023 In March 2020, Ding played in the
2020–2021 Candidates Tournament. At the start of the tournament, he won one game, lost three, and drew three in the first half of the tournament before it was suspended. He finished in 5th place after the tournament was resumed in April 2021, with a score of 7/14 (+4–4=6) and a performance rating of 2768. During 2022, Ding was able to play three of the nine tournaments of the
Champions Chess Tour 2022 winning the
Chessable Masters where he beat
Magnus Carlsen in semi-finals. After
Sergey Karjakin was disqualified from the
Candidates Tournament 2022, Ding was the highest player on the ratings list who was not already qualified. Ding had been unable to travel to tournaments outside China during the
COVID-19 pandemic, and was thus short of the minimum games requirement for qualification, but the
Chinese Chess Association organized three different rated events at short notice to allow him to qualify. At the Candidates Tournament, Ding recovered from a slow start and finished with 8/14 (+4−2=8), achieving second place at the tournament's end on 5 July. Later the same month the reigning World Champion
Magnus Carlsen declined to defend his title against the Candidates winner,
Ian Nepomniachtchi. Therefore, Ding's second-place spot qualified him to play Nepomniachtchi in the
World Chess Championship 2023. In January 2023, Ding appeared at the
Tata Steel tournament, defeating
Gukesh D in the first round, but then he eventually lost to
R Praggnanandhaa,
Richárd Rapport and
Anish Giri and finished in 11th place with 5½/13 (+1−3=10). This result dropped his rating below 2800, leaving only Magnus Carlsen to retain a rating above 2800.
World Champion (2023–2024) In April 2023, Ding and Nepomniachtchi began the
World Championship match with a back-and-forth classical portion that ended tied 7–7. Ding then defeated Nepomniachtchi in
rapid tiebreaks, winning the fourth game as Black. Ding became the first Chinese player to hold the title of World Chess Champion. In May, Ding participated in the GCT Superbet Chess Classic Romania, finishing in 8th with a score of 4/9 (+1−2=6). Following this, Ding took a nine-month break from tournaments, citing a struggle with depression. Ding ended the break in January 2024, placing ninth at the
Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024 with a score of 6/13 (+2−3=8). In March, Ding played in the
rapid time control (45+10) Grenke Chess Classic. He finished in 5th place out of 6 players, after scoring 4/10 (+0−2=8) in the double round-robin, coming second in a 4th-place tiebreaker with
Vincent Keymer and
Daniel Fridman (+1−2=1), and then beating Fridman 1½–½ for 5th place. In May–June, Ding played in
Norway Chess, placing last out of 6 players with a score of 7/30. The tournament was a double round-robin in classical chess, with an
Armageddon playoff after each classical draw. A classical win counted for three points, a classical draw and Armageddon win counted for one-and-a-half points, a classical draw and Armageddon loss counted for one point, and a classical loss counted for zero points. Ding scored no wins, four losses, and six draws in the classical games. He won 2 out of 6 Armageddon games, against
R Praggnanandhaa and
Hikaru Nakamura. In September, representing China as board one at the
Chess Olympiad in
Budapest, Ding failed to win a single game and as a result fell out of the FIDE top 20 rankings. He finished with a score of 3½/8 (+0−1=7), with a rating performance of 2664. Prior to the
2024 World Championship match, Ding was widely perceived as a significant
underdog, largely due to his mental struggles throughout the year. In an interview with Singaporean newspaper
The Straits Times, Ding said, "It doesn't seem like I've been playing the way I used to… and their assessment is correct and I don't know if I will ever reach that level again." Oddsmakers gave Ding 3-to-1 odds to win, equaling roughly a 25% chance. Throughout the match, much analysis continued to center around Ding's mental struggles. Several commentators responded with admiration for his fighting spirit and confidence in several games. Grandmaster
Anish Giri, following Ding's win in Game 12 to tie the match, said, "[Ding] seemed so broken, completely, yesterday, and now he plays an absolutely incredible game throughout, just all the way!" Ding lost the championship and the World Chess Champion title with a 6½ score against Gukesh 7½. In game 14, Ding made a crucial mistake in the endgame by allowing his opponent to force a trade of two pieces while down a pawn, transforming a drawn position into a loss. Despite speculation that Ding would retire following the match, he stated in an interview that he would continue to play.
2025–present In 2025, Ding won the
Shenzhen Masters chess tournament held from December 12 to 15 in
Shenzhen. In April 2026, he participated in the 8th SCO Team Chess Championship, where China I won after defeating Russia in the finals. Ding won in the armageddon game in the tiebreaks, by drawing with the black pieces.A few days later, on 19th April, he participated in his first classical tournament since losing the 2024 World Championship match, in the Chinese Team Chess Championship 2026, where he won in round 1 against Chen Qi B. == Results ==