Where Is Ding Liren? Ex-Champ Has Played So Few Classical Games He's Now Officially Inactive

His beaming smile lit up the chess world when he won the World Championship—a quiet, gentle grin that brought rare warmth and humanity to a sport often defined by focus, not fun.

But since losing that title just over a year ago, GM Ding Liren has barely been seen.

Now, having not played a single classical game in 2025, China's first undisputed world chess champion has been officially listed as inactive in classical chess following FIDE’s monthly rating update.

It is a sad sight—but Ding hasn't said goodbye, at least not publicly. He just failed to play the minimum number of rated classical games required to maintain active status.

Ding, 32, was dethroned in December 2024 by Indian prodigy GM Gukesh D, then just 18 years old, in a dramatic World Chess Championship match in Astana, Kazakhstan. It was painful.

The best-of-14 contest was decided in the final game, when Ding made a late, catastrophic blunder in an otherwise drawn position and resigned shortly afterward, handing Gukesh the title and making him the youngest world champion in history.

That was Ding's last official classical game, played on December 12, 2024.

Since that defeat, Ding has largely withdrawn from elite classical competition. He has skipped several major tournaments and has not returned to the classical circuit, falling short of FIDE’s activity threshold as a result.

Ding's most recent published classical rating stands at 2734, a significant drop from his peak but still firmly within the world elite.

Ding has not announced a retirement, and his inactive designation applies only to classical chess. He has remained sporadically active in rapid and blitz formats, and a single FIDE-rated classical game would be enough to restore his active status.

Ding became China’s first World Champion in 2023, after beating the Russian GM Ian Nepomniachtchi. It ended GM Magnus Carlsen's decade-long reign, but Ding only lasted less than a year as the game’s 17th world champion.

Ding is softly-spoken, modest, and universally respected.

Over the course of his career, Ding has been regarded as one of the most naturally gifted players of his generation. He reached a peak rating of 2816, won elite events such as Tata Steel, captured Olympiad team golds with China, and once went 100 consecutive classical games without a loss, one of the longest unbeaten streaks in modern chess history.

In past interviews, Ding has spoken openly about mental exhaustion and the psychological toll of elite competition, particularly during the World Championship cycle. Friends and analysts have suggested that his post-title withdrawal reflects a need for recovery rather than a loss of ability or ambition.

His inactive status has sparked widespread discussion among fans and commentators. Some see it as a worrying sign for a player once expected to dominate the post-Carlsen era; others view it as a reminder that even world champions are vulnerable to burnout in a sport that offers little margin for emotional error.

On social media, Ding has addressed the situation with characteristic understatement, hinting that one classical game would be enough to bring him back onto the list — a remark widely interpreted as reassurance rather than resignation.

For now, Ding remains absent but not gone: a former world champion, technically inactive in the game’s most prestigious format, yet still capable of returning at any moment.

We hope he does.