Ding’s wings

Ding Liren, from China, was a convincing winner of the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, which reached its climax in London last weekend. The Grand Chess Tour Finals, a four-player knockout, was the flagship event at this year’s London Chess Classic. The match format was a blend of classical (slow), rapid and blitz games. Although the slower games held more weight in the scoring, the very inclusion of faster time limits reflects their increased status in the modern game.
 
The first semi-final, between Magnus Carlsen and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, went to a tiebreak. The Frenchman won a topsy-turvy game in his beloved Najdorf Sicilian, as Carlsen went astray amid wild complications. In the second semi-final match Ding defeated Levon Aronian with a dominant performance in the rapid games.
 
Thus the final saw Ding pitted against Vachier-Lagrave. Ding let slip a big advantage in the first classical game, reluctantly settling for a perpetual check in an endgame where both players had two queens.