17 April 2023

Ding Liren Defeats Ian Nepomniachtchi in Game Six

The match has levelled again to a 3:3 score.

The match in Astana keeps attracting ever more famous chess players. Thus, the day of game six saw a presentation of the Chess Legends training course, which was attended by former world champions Vladimir Kramnik and Hou Yifan, grandmasters Darmen Sadvakasov and Evgeny Vladimirov. Vladimir Kramnik gave a simul to children and youth players. Besides, the premises of the world championship will host a match of women's teams: team Kazakhstan against team World. Team captains Gulmira Dauletova and Dana Reiznice-Ozola, as well as Hou Yifan, Bibisara Assaubaeva, and Darmen Sadvakasov took part in the press conference dedicated to the event.

However, let's return to the game itself. Ding Liren keeps changing his opening "serves": this time in game six he opted for the London system as White. This system is very popular with amateur chess players who ask their coaches for advice about the openings to employ that need no learning of many lines by heart while leading to a normal position as White anyway. However, the majority of professional players topped by Magnus Carlsen have firmly incorporated this setup into their repertoire as well, so that the Chinese grandmaster's choice could have hardly come as a surprise to Ian Nepomniachtchi.

The Russian blitzed out his moves first, showing with all his appearance that not only had he anticipated this setup in his home laboratory (which is clear anyway), but had also rehearsed his home prep going into the game. However, Ian seems to have blundered something anyway. When commenting on chess24.com, Anish Giri criticised the straightforward 14...Nd7 (to neutralise his opponent's centralised knight). The Dutch grandmaster claimed the exchange of knights, followed by binding the queenside with 16.a5, as providing a clear edge for White.

Indeed, a few moves down the road made it clear that Black had no counterplay and White could gradually step up his pressure across the board. Ding Liren's plan included relocating the knight to c5, reinforcing it with the b4-pawn and gradually setting up a break on the queenside. It was only natural that Ian felt unhappy about this pending development. He avoided the exchange of queens, which would have landed Black on the defensive side of a dull endgame, and struck in the center with e7-e5 instead. White still enjoyed advantage after that (which even probably increased), but Black had some counter-chances as his pieces were about to join the game.

Further course of the game proved that even world's strongest grandmasters are far from computer accuracy when it comes to double-edged struggle. Ding Liren committed at least two inaccuracies, which could have kept Black in the game. However, in the first case Ian needed to find a very tricky and unorthodox tactical resource, while in the second instance the challenge seemed quite realistic for the elite grandmaster with a substantial reserve of time at that.

Unfortunately, Nepomniachtchi got carried away with yet another idea, underestimating white pieces's attacking potential. Not particularly distracted by the opponent's passed pawn, Ding set up a mating attack to celebrate victory on move 44.

Ding Liren: "It took me long to decide on the opening to employ today, and I opted for the London system only at the very last moment. I tried to get a position rich in fighting potential without having to commit to any forcing things. I did my best to stay calm after yesterday's failure, and I think this line suited this purpose ideally.

Ian Nepomniachtchi, "Of course, I expected the London system to happen. However, today I have played one of my life's worst games as every move was either bad or inaccurate. And I even missed the 32…Qxc3 and 33…Qd2 chance when it came my way. A hell of a day."

Thus, the match has levelled again to a 3:3 score. Monday, April 17, is a scheduled rest day at the match. Game seven is taking place on Tuesday, April 18, with the Russian grandmaster having the white pieces. The game begins at 12.00 Moscow time.

You can follow the match live broadcast on Match TV channels. Nornickel is the company that sponsors the broadcast in Russia.

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