The Chinese chess player Lei Tingjie, 26 years old, has played a fabulous world championship. She took the lead on the scoreboard by winning the fifth game and took the initiative whenever she had the chance, but was defeated in the eighth. This Saturday he has fallen again in the twelfth and last game of his duel against his compatriot Ju Wenjun, 32 years old. The champion thus retains the crown and equals the Chinese woman with four victories Hou Yifan, still number one in the world. In the press conference, she confessed that she was “excited, but also relieved”, because she had avoided what already seemed unavoidable: risking everything in the rapid tiebreaker games. She also admitted that she had been “luckier”.
As an added reward, Wenjun takes home $300,000 in prize money, $100,000 more than his rival, who only fell when the pressure became unbearable. He is young and will have time to storm the target again. The champion also revealed the names of those who had been her assistants and her coaches, a fact that is usually kept secret in major competitions. They were two world-class great masters, the Chinese Wei Yi and the indian Pentala Harikrishna.
The connection between both Asian countries is eloquent about the immediate future of world chess. For the first time, China dominates the two crowns, the absolute and the women’s, after the victory of Ding Liren against the russian Ian Nepomniachtchi. Meanwhile, a new generation of young Indians, inspired by the great champion Vishy Anandstill among the top ten in the world despite being already 53 years old, threatens to devastate sooner rather than later.
Anand himself summed up very well on Twitter how the duel was defined: “Lei Tingjie He has played an impressive World Cup and today’s game was not characteristic of his game. Congratulations to Ju Wenjun on overcoming a fierce rival and remaining world champion.”
Indeed, the duel between Ju Wenjun and Lei Tingjie was very even, until in the last game the applicant made at least two serious positional errors, after exhibiting an almost always impeccable chess level. For the champion, who forgave the first of the mistakes but was implacable with the second, It has been the most difficult crown to achieve, of the four that he accumulates.