The FIDE World Chess Championship is underway between the two Grand Masters of Russian and Chinese nationalities respectively. It has been a toe-to-toe competition so far between the two, but the one game of late is creating all the buzz in the Chess world for shocking reasons. Ding Liren, the highest-rated Chinese player in history, had some sort of a mental freeze towards the end of Game 7. With only minutes to go, and 9 moves to make, the pressure got the better of Liren and he handed the game to his opponent on a silver platter.

The World Chess Championship, a set of 14 games, is scheduled from April 9-30 in Astana, Kazakhstan. World-ranked 2 chess player Ian Nepomniachtchi was all set to play in the tournament after his win in last year’s Candidates Tournament. His opponent, the incumbent champion Magnus Carlsen decided not to defend his title, and hence he faced rank 3 Ding Liren. The tournament was going even-stevens until Liren had this shocking downfall in Game 7.

Game 7 of the World Chess Championship witnesses a shocking moment

The clip, from when 4 minutes were left in the game between Liren and Nepomniachtchi, is going viral all over YouTube and social media. Anish Giri, Tania Sachdev, and Daniel Naroditsky are some of the commentators in the ongoing tournament. A YouTube video shared by Chess Clips captures the exact moment Liren starts to lose it under pressure. The pressure and the shock could be felt in the commentators’ voices and expressions.

It started out with 4 minutes to make 9 moves for Liren, which was already low. Each second passed, and Liren just sat there frozen in his seat. As the timer showed less than 3 minutes left, Naroditsky and Giri were nervous for him. “I’m about to jump out of my seat”, said Naroditsky at one point. Tania Sachdev too said, “I can’t handle the pressure”, and Giri left his seat briefly.

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But in Astana, Liren stayed frozen, immobile, as the timer moved below 2 minutes. Liren, by now, had lost almost any hope he had to win this game. With a minute and 15 seconds to go, Liren still had 9 moves to make.

The pressure got the better of Ding Liren

The timer kept ticking, and Liren now held both his hands to his head and kept thinking. Giri said, “I’ve seen it happen to people. He’s frozen”. With only 45 seconds left, Liren finally advanced his rook forward. Nepomniachtchi now had a huge lead in time with nearly 12 minutes left in his timer. It was already too late for Liren. With 6 seconds left, and still, a few moves to make Liren had to resign. “It was a meltdown of epic proportions”, said Naroditsky appropriately.

Anish Giri said, “Because chess is not a physical sport, so usually you don’t see the collapses. But this is like what a collapse looks like”. And it was exactly that. A collapse like no other. The world-ranked 3 player and a three-time Chinese chess champion, who once earned high praise from Magnus Carlsen after their match at the Charity Cup, couldn’t find himself to make one move. He will need to make a strong comeback in Game 8 against Ian Nepomniachtchi.

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