If there were a ‘best name’ prize at the World Team Championships, held in Hong Kong in June, then ‘Dragon Chilling’ would surely have won it. It managed to be both mythic and absurd at the same time: honouring the team of Chinese stars, especially former world champion Ding Liren who played on top board, and serving up a delicate millefeuille of memes.
One layer goes back to 2023, when chess fans noticed Ding sitting alone in a side room during his World Championship match against Ian Nepomniachtchi, serene to the point of indifference as the battle unfolded. ‘Ding was chilling during game one,’ Chess.com captioned it, and the comments filled up with fans parroting the phrase ‘Ding chilling’.
It was embraced by fans well beyond that point, perhaps because it captured Ding’s phlegmatic approach to the many twists and turns in that match. The phrase, in turn, was a riff on an older meme born in 2021, when John Cena, the wrestler-turned-actor, earnestly tried to say ‘ice cream’ in Mandarin, pronouncing it in a way that the internet mischievously transliterated as ‘Bing chilling’.
Dragon Chilling took gold in both the rapid and the blitz. The rapid title came down to the wire, where they led for most of the event, lost two matches in a row on the final day, then won gold on tiebreaks. Their top scorer, Yu Yangyi, had a lucky break in the following endgame. Grischuk’s simplest winning option was 44 Rxb6, but instead he over-finessed it:
Alexander Grischuk-Yu Yangyi
Fide World Rapid Team Championship, June 2026
44 Rc6+ Kd7 45 Rxb6? An awful blunder. It was not too late for 45 Rcd6+ Rf2+ 46 Ke5 Re7+ Now 47 Kd5 Rf5 is mate! Instead White loses a rook. 47 Rhe6 Rxe6+ 48 Rxe6 Re2+ 49 Kd5 Rxe6 50 Kxc5 Re2 51 Kxd4 Rxc2 52 Kc5 Rh2 53 d4 Rxh4 54 d5 Kc7 White resigns
A couple of days later, they triumphed again in the blitz knockouts. Ding seized the initiative in this game from the final match.
Hans Niemann-Ding Liren
Fide World Blitz Team Championship, June 2026
24… Qa7 25 Rf3 Nh4 26 Rg3 f5 27 Na4 f4 28 Nxb6? 28 exf4 exf4 29 Nxf4! was playable, since 29…Rxf4 30 Nxb6 Qxb6? 31 c5! favours White. fxg3 29 hxg3 Qe7 30 gxh4 Qxh4+ 31 Kg1 Qf2+ 32 Kh1 Bg4 33 Rd2 Qh4+ 34 Kg1 Qe1+ 35 Kh2 Rf2? 35…Rf3!! wins, e.g. 36 c5+ Kh8 37 cxd6 Rh3+ 38 gxh3 Qf2+ 39 Kh1 Bf3# 36 c5+ Kh7 37 Bd1? 37 Rd1! keeps the game alive. Bf3 38 Ng3 Rxd2 39 Qxd2 Qxd2 40 Bxf3 dxc5 41 bxc5 Qxe3 White resigns
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