The Week in Chess

The third game of the FIDE World Championship match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren in Astana, Kazakhstan finished in a draw by repetition in just 30 moves.

Nepomniachtchi with whtie switched from the 1.e4 of game one to 1.d4 and said he wasn't surprised by the solid Queen's Gambit, that said he didn't seem to have any improvement in mind over the game Anish Giri against Ding from the online Chessable Masters in 2022. Giri got nowhere in that game and Nepomniachtchi got nothing today and when the players repeated the position was dynamically balanced.

After worryingly nervy behaviour in the first two games Ding Liren looked much more like his old self today. Friend's had rallied round in the last few days he said and he spent much more time at the board. Hopefully he's now fully into the match.

Ding Liren: “I was not happy with the result. I was trying to play for win at some point, but I couldn’t find a way to break through. So, I think a draw is a decent result for both of us.”

Score Nepomniachtchi 2 Ding Liren 1. Best of 14

Game 4 Thursday 13th April 10am BST. Ding has the white pieces.