Ding Liren, Reigning World Chess Champion, Returns After a 7-Month Break from Chess

By Ren Cai

The reigning world chess champion, Ding Liren, has returned after a more-than-half-an-year break from chess. On January 13, 2024, Ding Liren returns to classical chess in the year’s first big tournament, Tata Steel Chess 2024. Rewinding to the previous year, Ding Liren played in a little tournament in Romania following his victory as the world chess champion. It was his last game for some time. Ding Liren “disappeared” following that event in Romania and didn’t show up again for a while. In November of 2023, Ding discloses that he has been battling illness for a while in an email to Chess.com. The world champion stated that was the reason for his absence from competition play, albeit he did not provide specifics. Ding’s first few games in the Tata Steel Chess resulted in two draws, a win, and a loss. Now that Ding is back, we have nothing to worry about and we wish him good luck for the tournament he is currently participating in.