After a grueling month-long battle between the two gladiators, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren at the Colosseum of the St. Regis Astana Hotel in Astana, we finally know the name of our 17th World Chess Champion. Big congratulations to Ding Liren on winning the tiebreaks 2.5-1.5 to bring an end to this truly epic match.

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And of course, we must not forgot that despite losing the match Ian Nepomiachtchi**,** is just as responsible for the incredible show that we were blessed to watch, and in so many occasions it seemed like he would win the match. Both players have displayed stunning ideas, and were always ready to take risks and go for aggressive, dynamic positions and though this match had its fair share of blunders, bad decisions, and moments of psychological weakness, we can still cherish the many brilliant moves, bold sacrifices and awesome games.

Huge thank you to the organizers and the crew of the St. Regis Astana Hotel for their work behind the scenes, to the wonderful commentators including Vishy, Dubov, Krush, Fabi, Anish, Danya, Hess, Tania etc. for their insights and analysis, to the hosts (Keti Tsatsalashvili and Jesse February) and the photographers (Eg: Maria Emilianova), to every single person who made this event possible. Also a big thank you to all the people who told me to make this post-game threads sort by new. I am really sorry for not noticing your requests until it was way too late.

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And of course, a huge thank you to each and every single one of you who followed the event, read articles, watched recaps, cheered at every slight jump in the eval-bar, or commented in our sub. Chess.com viewership was over 240k at peak and our total pageviews for r/chess for April stood at a whopping 19.5 million, a 58% increase from last month. Ultimately, it is your enthusiasm and loyalty towards our royal game that keeps it alive, and ensures that these high level events can exist in the first place.

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With the formalities out of the way, let the discussion begin!

Link to the Tie-breaks thread here: https://www.reddit.com/r/chess/comments/133ha3x/event_2023_world_chess_championship_match/jia0qc3/?context=3