He lost his title to Gukesh Dommaraju in the last game of the World Chess Championship 2024, reaching a score of 6½ to 7½.

[18][19] In August 2015, he became the first Chinese player after Wang Yue to break into the top 10 of the FIDE world rankings.

[23] In October of the same year, Ding qualified for the 2020–21 Candidates Tournament by finishing 2nd place in the World Cup for the second time in a row.

[24] Along with Magnus Carlsen, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, and Levon Aronian, he was a 2019 Grand Chess Tour finalist.

[26] During 2022, Ding was able to play three of the nine tournaments of the Champions Chess Tour 2022 winning the Chessable Masters where he beat Magnus Carlsen in semi-finals.

After Sergey Karjakin was disqualified from the Candidates Tournament 2022, Ding was the highest player on the ratings list who was not already qualified.

Later the same month the reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen declined to defend his title against the Candidates winner, Ian Nepomniachtchi.

[31] In January 2023, Ding appeared at the Tata Steel tournament, defeating Gukesh D in the first round, but then he eventually lost to R Praggnanandhaa, Richárd Rapport and Anish Giri and finished in 11th place with 5½/13 (+1−3=10).

In April 2023, Ding and Nepomniachtchi began the World Championship match with a back-and-forth classical portion that ended tied 7–7.

[36][37] Ding ended the break in January 2024, placing ninth at the Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2024 with a score of 6/13 (+2−3=8).

In September, representing China as board one at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Ding failed to win a single game and as a result fell out of the FIDE top 20 rankings.

[43] Prior to the 2024 World Championship match, Ding was widely perceived as a significant underdog, largely due to his mental struggles throughout the year.

In game 14, Ding made a crucial mistake in the endgame by allowing his opponent to force a trade of two pieces while down a pawn, transforming a drawn position into a loss.