Ding Liren shows his mettle in defeating Caruana in Round 3 of the FIDE Candidates

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FIDE Candidates Chess Tournament 2020 (3)

Ding Liren shows his mettle in defeating Caruana in Round 3 of the FIDE Candidates

Mark Crowther - Thursday 19th March 2020

Ding Liren scored an absolutely crucial victory in Round 3 of the Candidates. Photo ©

Ding Liren scored an absolutely crucial victory in Round 3 of the Candidates. Photo © | https://en.candidates-2020.com/main

Ding Liren finally got on the scoreboard by defeating Fabiano Caruana in the only decisive game of the third round of the FIDE Candidates in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Caruana and then Ding were commonly regarded as the favourites before the event started but two losses placed Ding's challenge on life support barely out of the starting gate.

Ding was briefly tempted to play for a draw against Caruana's Slav Defence with the exchange variation before pulling himself together and saying to himself "it's not my style and I have to play for the most critical line."

Caruana blitzed out his moves producing a dangerous pawn sacrifice with 9...e5 and giving a second pawn away with 14...c4 and was still playing fast up to 17...Ng6 after which the top computer suggestion is 18.Qc1, Ding played 18.Qf5 Caruana slowed a bit, but not that much and was doing fine until 22...h6? (played in only about 1 minute) after which suddenly his compensation for two pawns disappeared (22...Re5 was full compensation for black). Ding wasn't certain he was better until 27.Qg3 when it was really clear to him things had gone badly wrong for Caruana and in spite of relative time shortage Ding made it comfortably to move 40 with a winning advantage - converted only a few moves later. Ding stayed very strong in the face of fast, confident looking play and really deserved his win.

The other games were drawn. Kirill Alekseenko and Ian Nepomniachtchi drew a very wild French Defence where 25...g6 allowed a sacrifice 26.Bxg6 that was objectively great for white but with only 3 minutes left on the clock Alekseenko had to turn it down, this messy game was eventually drawn on move 40. Alexander Grischuk got a nasty endgame advantage against Wang Hao before allowing a sacrificial idea to equalise the position. Anish Giri and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave drew a Gruenfeld where white was somewhat better but neither player thought it was very much.

Round 3 Standings: 1st-3rd Nepomniachtchi, MVL, Wang Hao 2pts, 4th-5th Caruana, Grischuk 1.5pts 6th-8th Ding Liren, Giri, Alekseenko 1pt.

Rest day Friday 20th March 2020.

Round 4 Saturday 21st March 2020 11am GMT: Caruana-Nepomniachtchi, Wang Hao-Alekseenko, MVL-Grischuk, Ding Liren-Giri.

FIDE Candidates Round 3 Thursday 19th March 2020

Ding vs Caruana Round 3 Candidates. Photo © https://en.candidates-2020.com/main.

I reported the Ding win in a fair amount of detail above. Ding Liren gave an interesting press conference afterwards.

"Since he played so quickly and I was down more than one hour after the opening I don't know where he went wrong but [perhaps something] instead of h6. It's a very strange position but during the game I was very worried about my position although I didn't see a clear way to play for him since he was still in his preparation I thought there might be something wrong with my play."

"Maybe he played too slow [not in time but his idea], he played many pawn moves so I can develop my queen to a better square after that it's completely winning for white."

Q: Did you think you were much better, may winning after h6?

Ding: No, no no. Only after my Queen go to g3 he didn't have too much counter play at that point I thought my position much better.

"Yesterday I prepared hard, not for this game but some general ideas. " Ding said he was wanting to find how he played in the past, in his best shape and to recover.

"After the opening it was very frustrated seeing as he played so quickly. But slowly he didn't have any counter play and at that point I was very happy about my position."

"My friends and coach all give me a lot of help. They encourage me to keep fighting. As he played the Slav at one point I wanted to play cd and make a quick draw but then I think it's not my style and I have to play for the most critical line."

Alekseenko vs Nepomniachtchi Round 3 Candidates. Photo © https://en.candidates-2020.com/main.

Kirill Alekseenko faced the French Defence from Ian Nepomniachtchi and an unclear game ensued where Alekseenko again got very short of time. 25...g6 was provocative ("a bluff") from Nepomniachtchi as it allowed 26.Bxg6 when the bishop can't really be taken but with only 3 minutes left to first time control Alekseenko decided it was too risky. Nepomniachtchi looked like he was getting the upper hand but starting with 32...a5 he practically forced a draw.

Grischuk vs Wang Round 3 Candidates. Photo © https://en.candidates-2020.com/main.

Grischuk missed a tactic with a minute left on his clock with 34...Ne4! Grischuk said "I think I was close to winning" before his 34.g5? error. It indeed seems that 32.Bb1 was quite a large advantage Grischuk saw the Ne4+ trick earlier but forgot about it by the time it became playable. Wang Hao thought he had a lucky escape.

Anish Giri against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave threatened to get exciting but it seems MVL was really accurate in assessing the position after his 18...Qd7! cutting out the most dangerous attacking ideas and held quite comfortably.

"I know I have a lot of things to remember." MVL commented after the game in connection with the free day on Friday. "Strangely enough it will be about chess. It's not like me, but it's a new me."

Ding and Caruana shake hands at the end of their game. It seems even with the Coronavirus around it's hard to break traditions. Round 3 Candidates. Photo © https://en.candidates-2020.com/main.

FIDE Candidates 2020 Yekaterinburg RUS (RUS), 15 iii-5 iv 2020																			cat. XXI (2774)
					1		2		3		4		5		6		7		8
1.	Nepomniachtchi, Ian	g	RUS	2774	*	*	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	1	.	½	.	.	.	2	2871
2.	Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	g	FRA	2767	.	.	*	*	.	.	.	.	½	.	½	.	.	.	1	.	2	2928
3.	Wang, Hao	g	CHN	2762	.	.	.	.	*	*	½	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	1	.	2	2906
4.	Grischuk, Alexander	g	RUS	2777	½	.	.	.	½	.	*	*	.	.	.	.	½	.	.	.	1½	2744
5.	Caruana, Fabiano	g	USA	2842	.	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	.	.	1	.	0	.	1½	2756
6.	Giri, Anish	g	NED	2763	0	.	½	.	½	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	.	.	.	.	1	2642
7.	Alekseenko, Kirill	g	RUS	2698	½	.	.	.	.	.	½	.	0	.	.	.	*	*	.	.	1	2672
8.	Ding, Liren	g	CHN	2805	.	.	0	.	0	.	.	.	1	.	.	.	.	.	*	*	1	2665

Round 3 (March 19, 2020)
Grischuk, Alexander	- Wang, Hao	½-½	49	C42	Petroff's Defence
Giri, Anish	- Vachier-Lagrave, Maxime	½-½	30	D85	Gruenfeld Defence
Alekseenko, Kirill	- Nepomniachtchi, Ian	½-½	40	C19	French Winawer
Ding, Liren	- Caruana, Fabiano	1-0	59	D17	Slav Defence

View the games on this Page

Download the PGN from this page

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