[1] The previous champion Magnus Carlsen decided not to defend his title against Ian Nepomniachtchi, the winner of the Candidates Tournament 2022, stating he was "not motivated to play another match".

[5] Ding gained a place in the Candidates only because Sergey Karjakin, whom he replaced, was sanctioned for supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Nepomniachtchi won the Candidates, but Ding secured second place by beating Hikaru Nakamura in a must-win final-round game.

In December 2021, soon after the 2021 championship (against Ian Nepomniachtchi), Carlsen stated that he lacked the motivation to defend his title again, unless the challenger was Alireza Firouzja.

[11][12][13] After Carlsen formally confirmed his decision in writing, FIDE officially invited Ding to participate in the 2023 world championship.

The World Chess Championship 1948 was a five-player tournament held without the previous champion Alexander Alekhine, who had died in 1946.

[17][18] The challengers were Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren, who qualified as the winner and runner-up, respectively, in the Candidates Tournament 2022 in Madrid, Spain,[19] which began on June 16 and ended on July 5, 2022.

[20][21] Ding qualified for the Candidates Tournament 2022 through his rating, as a replacement for Sergey Karjakin, who had been barred from playing by FIDE due to his comments supporting the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

[27] The main sponsor for the event was Freedom Holding Corp., a Kazakhstan-based Russian investment company with ties to the Central Asian region, with chess training app Chessable, mining company LLP Tioline, and the Kazakhstan Chess Federation also sponsoring the event.

[48][49] Nepomniachtchi worked with second Nikita Vitiugov, along with Maxim Matlakov and Ildar Khairullin, while also consulting with former world champion Vladimir Kramnik.

Shortly after the beginning of game 8, a Reddit post pointed to two accounts on Lichess named "opqrstuv" and "FVitelli", and speculated these belonged to Ding Liren and his second Richárd Rapport.

"[40] After the conclusion of the Championship, Ding confirmed the leak in an interview, saying he "realised it left [them] with no real ideas, so [they] had to come up with new ones" during the match.

Nepomniachtchi surprised commentators with the rare sideline 6.Bxc6 dxc6 7.Re1, and, in the words of Erwin l'Ami, obtained a "risk-free position and long-term structural edge".

Nepomniachtchi said at the press conference that he initially wrote 4.g3 (a standard move which would have led into a Catalan) on his score sheet, before realizing 4.h3 had been played.

In the post-game interview, Ding stated he had considered 27...d4 as a potential move to continue playing for a win, but decided it would have been too risky.

"[76] Nepomniachtchi made comments to the same effect, remarking that "The Queen's Gambit Declined is a very solid opening, so you're not going to achieve much.

Nepomniachtchi's 9...Nf4 followed an earlier game won by Ding's second Rapport, leading Anish Giri to speculate that he had confused some of his preparation.

[79] Ding said he originally considered 29.Qd3 as a response, but found the winning move after thinking for just over a minute, while Nepomniachtchi confirmed that he did not see it until it was played.

Even though the position was completely lost for Black, Nepomniachtchi played on, with Ding precisely converting his advantage.

Nepomniachtchi quickly launched a kingside attack, playing the pawn break 37.g5!, to which Ding's response 37...hxg5 was considered "losing completely" by Giri.

Ding played the London System, making this game the first time it has appeared in a World Championship match.

When asked about the frequency of decisive games in the match, Nepomniachtchi declined to answer, while Ding responded jokingly, "I guess we are not as professional as Magnus [Carlsen].

In reply to 1.e4, Ding deviated from his usual 1...e5, surprising his opponent and the commentators by opting for the French Defence, an opening last seen in a world championship match in 1978 (played there twice by Viktor Korchnoi; both games ended in a draw).

However, instead of 19.Qe2, which would have preserved winning chances for either side, Nepomniachtchi chose 19.dxc4, inviting a series of exchanges that later led to a fully drawn rook endgame, with the players drawing by repetition only a few moves later.

[105] The fourth and final game of the rapid tie-break was a victory for Ding Liren, resulting in him winning the world championship.

Nepomniachtchi built a slight advantage, but a mistake, 35.Ra1?, allowed Ding to regain a pawn and return the game to equality.

[105][106] In the press conference immediately after winning the title, Ding reflected on the journey involved in becoming a World Champion.

[107]Former world champion Viswanathan Anand, who commentated during the event, said that it is impossible to praise both players enough, highlighting their energy and noting the final game as especially draining.

[7] Dylan Loeb McClain of The New York Times highlighted the significance of Ding's victory in his home country of China, where chess had previously been banned during the Cultural Revolution due to the game's strong presence in the Western world.

Finally, Ding managed to win the World Championship title despite trailing the series for the majority of the time.