Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi won the second game of the match against Dean Liren from China and took the lead in the World Chess Championship match. Sport correspondent about how the opponent tried to lead the Russian into troubled waters, but ended up in them himself.
After Sunday's first game of the chess crown match, where Ding Liren «rebounded» in rough football language, there was a feeling that the Chinese grandmaster would have a psychological advantage the next day. And the white pieces at his disposal will be a good help. Nepomniachtchi, theoretically, could plunge into an abyss of emotions because of a missed chance to win.
And soon after the start of the second game, we really had to remember the waves, but in a completely different way. Already on the fourth move, Ding made an extremely unusual move for fights of such a high level with the extreme pawn of the kingside. He did — and, as it seemed, with a sense of some pride he retired to the rest room, leaving Nepomniachtchi to look for an answer to the question of what it was.
It was, in fact, an attempt to play with an opponent, figuratively speaking, a game in a sea battle. Confuse him, lead him into unfamiliar waters full of reefs and unexpected currents — and then shy away with direct fire. The fact that Nepomniachtchi first smiled incredulously, and then «froze» for almost ten minutes, thinking about how to respond to the Chinese's unexpected reception, was evidence that Dean's move came as a surprise to him.
The key moment for the Russian chess player here, of course, was to try to return to the playing harbor he knew and there already to figure out if there was any other deep idea behind the sensation from Dean, or if it was just an attempt to unbalance him. And the best thing would be to surprise the Chinese chess player at the same time, who made the first moves practically without hesitation, which indicated that he had prepared this variation in advance.
And by the 11th move, Nepomniachtchi managed to do the and other. As the Russian chess player later admitted at a press conference, he moved the game into a position that he knew — only, of course, without the strange move of the h-pawn. It also left Dean with the choice of one of several continuations, which obviously were not considered by him during the preparation for the match.
As a result, after thinking it over for more than half an hour, the Chinese chose the most unfortunate of them — exchanging a knight on f6, confessing later that he simply overlooked that in response Nepomniachtchi could take his piece not with a queen, but with a pawn. Which, although somewhat spoiling the structure of the position, opened up the possibility of attacking the king directly in the future.
And a few more moves later, the Russian grandmaster waited for a more serious mistake by his opponent. Having started the rebuilding of the light-squared bishop — although it was no longer with the aim of developing pressure, but in order to «plug the holes», Dean did not see a powerful pawn breakthrough from Nepomniachtchi. According to Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri, who commented on the game on chess.com, after that moment the game was technically won for black.
But, of course, Nepomniachtchi still needed not to miss any unexpected blow himself. However, the Chinese chess player practically did not try to inflict it, making moves that only worsened his position. And at the same time he spent a lot of time, exacerbating the situation. Already on the 22nd move, everyone watching the game was simply waiting for Dean to decide to raise a white flag over his sinking ship, that is, to surrender. As a result, this happened a little less than three and a half hours of «maneuvers» after Nepomniachtchi's 29th move.
Of course, everyone was interested in whether Ding Liren himself decided on an unexpected move or whether he was advised by the Hungarian grandmaster Richard Rapport, the assistant of the Chinese, known for his unexpected creative openings. «I immediately thought that this was Rapport's idea,» Nepomniachtchi said at a press conference. Ding admitted that this was the case, but added that he played «not very well» after he applied the novelty.
Well, the Chinese chess player, in the same terminology of a naval battle, is «wounded.» To lose the very first game with the white pieces, and, to put it mildly, in a rather helpless way, is a serious psychological blow. And it is not very clear who now benefits from a day of rest before the third game — Nepomniachtchi, who can forget the relative failure on the opening day of the match and prepare to play from a position of strength, or Ding Liren, who is already in an extremely difficult psychological state. What he doesn't really hide.
«There's a feeling that Dean is playing below his capabilities,» admitted the President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE), Arkady Dvorkovich. and such a psychological advantage on the part of one player. So far, Jan's advantage is obvious. But there are still 12 games ahead.»