The Week in Chess

The 14 game match for the World Chess Championship between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren finished in a 7-7 draw after a final 14th game of near unbearable tension. There will be a rapid and possibly blitz tie-breaks on Sunday to decide the title.

Ding Liren had the white pieces and chose the 5.Bd2 Nimzo-Indian. Pretty soon the players were on their own but also it was clear that after 9...dxc4 black had no problems. Well perhaps it wasn't clear to Ding because he went for the super aggressive 12.Ng5 h6 13.h4. Ding was soon disappointed though as 13...Qc7 effectively refuted the attacking ideas and 14.Be2 acknowledged that. There were some computer lines that promised black an advantage but Nepomniachtchi played natural moves and the game was about level after 15...Nf8.

Ian Nepomniachtchi on 12.Ng5: "Actually, I didn't buy it. It didn't seem like it was going to work because I never played any suspicious moves. I'm well-developed. If Ng5 and h4 could win a game, chess would be much easier for White."

Ding Liren: “I thought that I had more tempi in this position. So, I thought that I had some chances to launch an attack. I was very optimistic with the Ng5 move, and even excited playing it. But then suddenly I had to go to defence mode. That was the turning point of the game, I guess.”

Ding's 19.Bb4?! started some tactics to solve some of his problems but again the engine's didn't like this with a precise sequence leading to a big advantage. It's hard to know if the players really missed chances so far in this strange position, for instance 29.Nb7! was equal. 30.Rg3 was bad though and Nepomniachtchi built up a winning advantage after the further error 34.Ke2?

36...e5 was a bit of a safety first move and it probably cost the Russian the win as now Ding was virtually forced to find the liquidating combination 38.b6! after which he managed to reach a drawn Rook and Pawn endgame. Ding still had to be accurate after first time control but he was and although the game continued to move 90 there were no more changes in evaluation.

So the match was tied 7-7 and now there will be 4 rapid 25 minute + 10 seconds a move games. If those are drawn a couple of pairs of blitz games at 5 minutes + 3 seconds a move will be played. After that there will be 3 minute plus 2 seconds a move games played until there is a decisive game. No Armageddon, they will play until there's a decision. There is also no rest day. The tie-breaks are tomorrow Sunday 30th April at 10am. Ding Liren drew the white pieces.