The penultimate game of the World Championship match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren took place on Thursday in Astana. Grandmasters tied. Before the decisive game, the score in the struggle of mind and nerves is equal — 6.5-6.5.
A day earlier, Nepomniachtchi was close to victory. If he had brought the game to its logical conclusion, then with a score of 7-5, he would hardly have missed the coveted crown. No wonder they say that the most difficult thing in chess is to win, having a winning position.
The Russian eventually lost. Today, the question remained open to the party. Nepomniachtchi psychologically moved away from defeat?
Yang traditionally opened the game with the move of the king's pawn, Ding Liren responded in kind. The Spanish game appeared again, in some variations called «Spanish torture» for black.
On the 10th move, Nepomniachtchi evaded the main variations, and on the 13th he initiated exchanges and relieved the position in the center.
br>Grandmaster Alexander Shabalov assessed the situation as follows:
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"Jan does this part very well, his face is impenetrable, but deep preparation is visible. In this edition, the computer didn't even recommend d4. Nepomniachtchi confidently went for it. I think that only after Black's knight move to c4 did a truly new position arise for him. It may not have been analyzed in detail.»
Soon, Ding Liren activated the patterns. Commentators have already rated their balanced structure as preferable. The Asian champion Murtas Kazhgaleev suggested that «Black's inaccuracies will cost him less than White's.» But the Chinese grandmaster hesitated a little and made not the best move with the rook. Nepomniachtchi took advantage of the moment and regrouped the pieces with the activation of the queen.
And F5 again! The previous game was almost over after the fatal mistake of the Russian in the form of a foot move to f5. On Thursday, the situation repeated itself. The move of the same pawn turned out to be the key one. After Ding, Liren on the 24th move started a maneuver with a rook sacrifice for a bishop and a pawn, the exchange of queens and the transition to the endgame. Nepomniachtchi quickly forced his opponent to exchange rooks, simplifying the situation.
The position began to look like a draw more and more. In the end, the contenders for the world chess crown repeated their moves three times. To avoid risks, Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren recorded a draw. All strength and nerves were saved for the decisive battle.
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"The stakes and tension are high, fatigue is accumulating, one might say, the game is for survival. And we no longer see a very good quality of games, but we see what chess players can do with willpower. A draw today is logical,” said the match commentator, multiple US champion Irina Krush.
Without much frustrationAfter the end of the game, Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren looked tired, but did not show disappointment either.
The Russian admitted that the day before he had a feeling that «something was going wrong.» After a moment, Yang added:
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“Today, it was slowly receding. In the opening I played incorrectly, Black easily equalized the position. Then there was not a very pleasant position, and after the rook on e5 we managed to fight back. There were probably chances in the endgame, but I couldn't find them. Didn't see my position much better. The opponent always found countermoves".
Ding Liren was habitually restrained.
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» The position was a draw. I don't think I could play better here. Even if the game was not 13th, but at the beginning of the match,” he said.
President of the International Chess Federation (FIDE) Arkady Dvorkovich noted that he was not against seeing a tie-break.< br>«
"Of course, now I would like to see a tie-break. But if the match ends the day after tomorrow, it will still be beautiful,” said Dvorkovich.
He also suggested that in the final classical game, much will depend on how much strength the opponents have left.
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"Today it was clear that Jan, without a day of rest, physically simply does not have enough energy to play aggressively. If the players have strength after a day of rest, then there will be a struggle,” said the head of FIDE.
The last classic game of the title match for the chess crown will take place on April 29th. In case of a draw, the winner will be determined by a tie-break, which will take place on April 30.