The Week in Chess

Ian Nepomniachtchi suffered a devastating loss to Ding Liren in the 12th game of the World Chess Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan. Not only did that mean that the match was tied at 6-6 with two games to go but it also represented a huge emotional blow, earlier it seemed that he was actually going to win the game and virtually assure being the new World Champion. Nepomniachtchi looked very distressed during the 16 minutes of thought at move 35 as he tried to find any move to continue his completely wrecked position.

Ding returned to 1.d4, Nepomniachtchi offered the Queen's Gambit, Ding chose the Colle system, and almost immediately Nepomniachtchi took the game into fresh pastures. 5...Qc7 was rare, 6...Bd7 was new and 8....Bg4 looked like giving him at least equality. Ding was happy with his position but this seems overoptimistic.

Ding Liren: "I thought that my position was better from the opening. But after my opponent played a series of good moves, I felt like tables turned around, and I was close to losing, so I tried to complicate the waters with some tactics."

Ding damaged black's pawn structure round his king with 12.Bxf6 and then played the double edged 17.g4. The problem was black had at least as good attacking chances against as he had. White started to get into trouble with 19.Bc2? (19.Rg1 was about equal) and after 19...Nh4! it was clear white was struggling. 24.c4 was already quite desperate from Ding 26...b4 was aggressive from Nepomniachtchi, 26...a6 would have kept much of his advantage but denied any counter play. Black was winning here with best play but there were signs Nepomniachtchi was getting over excited.

Ian Nepomniachtchi: "My position at one moment looked like winning. But even if you are winning, you have to be precise till the end. And clearly today I wasn't precise enough." "To lose in a supposedly winning position is not the best thing to do. I decided to go for some forcing lines and met the consequences. At some point, the game was a big mess."

27...Rag8? was played after 27 seconds of thought, 27...Nf3 was much better. 28...Bb8 was played quickly too (28...Nf5!). Ding wasn't immune to nerves as there were two much better moves than 29.Qb7 (29.Bxg6 and 29.d5) 29...Rh6 was second best (29...Nf5!). After 31.Qxb4 it was clear that white was better, not yet winning though. Then after 3 minutes of thought the wild lunge 34...f5?? came from Nepomniachtchi and a clearly shocked Ding spent a minute over 35.Rxe6 and black can resign which he did after just four more moves.

Match level, we'll have to see what happens next in this very tense match.

Score: Nepomniachtchi 6 Ding 6. Best of 14.

Game 13 Nepomniachtchi-Ding on Thursday 10am BST.