ASTANA, April 9, Andrey Simonenko. Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi stated that he had an advantage in the first game of the match for the title of world chess champion against the Chinese Ding Liren, but did not consider him very serious.
On Sunday Nepomniachtchi played with white pieces, the game ended in a draw on the 49th move. The score in the confrontation is 0.5-0.5. The next game will take place on April 10, the Russian grandmaster will play black.
«»An interesting game, I pressed at some point. Not really seriously, but then I couldn't decide which pawn to take for a long time. Probably, the bishop's move to d6 was not very accurate, the move to h5 was important moment, everything soon became clear,» Nepomniachtchi said at a press conference.
The Russian grandmaster was asked about the choice of tactics in the first game compared to the previous match against Magnus Carlsen. “If I won, I would say that I did everything right. Each opponent is unique, to be honest, there is nothing more to add to this,” Nepomniachtchi stated.
The winner of the match will be the player who scores at least 7.5 points first. A total of 14 games are planned with classical time control, after every two games there is a day of rest. In case of a draw after 14 games, the winner will be determined by a tie-break.
The prize fund of the match is 2 million euros, it will be distributed between the winner and the loser in the ratio of 60% to 40%, however, if the champion is determined in a tie-break, he will receive 55% of the amount, and the loser — 45% .