Nihal Sarin Crashes Ding Liren Months Before the World Championship Match
GM Nihal Sarin crushed World No.2 and 2023 WC Challenger Ding Liren with a 17 to 9 score at the Speed Chess Championship quarterfinals, showing not only fierce bullet skills but also great sportsmanship.
The 18-year-old Indian GM has recently won Tata Steel India with a round to spare, and made sure to keep his momentum rolling at the Speed Chess Championship.
On Wednesday Nihal edged out GM Anish Giri in their tiebreak playoff, in which both of them played one exclamation move after the other! Finally, Nihal won 15-14 to move to the quarterfinals against Ding Liren.
The match was closely fought in the blitz segments, with a +2 for Nihal, but the bullet sky-rocked the score for Nihal against the 2023 WC Challenger to bring it to 17-9!
During their first games with the score still being 4-2 for Nihal, Ding Liren flagged in a winning position, due to his poor internet connection. In the next game Nihal resigned after 3 moves to give Ding the point back and show what a great sportsman he is!
