Game 13 of World Championship Match Ends in Draw

The overall score is now 6.5-6.5.

April 27, the capital city of Kazakhstan hosted Game 13 of the FIDE World Championship Match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren. The symbolic first move was made by the Akim of Astana, Zhenis Kassymbek.  

The opponents opened the game into the Ruy Lopez and followed in the footsteps of game five until move 10. The GM of Russia won that game. The first to sidestep the trodden path was Ian Nepomniachtchi, who opted for 10. Be3 in lieu of 10. a4. A few moves later White initiated simplifications via 14. d4, but a number of exchanges gave Black a pleasant play.  

Nepomniachtchi followed it by committing an inaccuracy that allowed Ding to break in the center and open up the game, at which point the white king started feeling other than comfortable. Then both sides started performing imprecisely so that positional evaluation would swing from equal to better for Black. Nevertheless, one inaccurate move was enough to give Ian necessary defensive resources, which convinced Liren to give up exchange for a pawn and then trade queens.  

White was slightly better at the end, which was anyway hard to convert from a practical point of view. The opponents did not feel like going all out and agreed a draw on move 40. 

The overall match score is now 6.5-6.5 Friday, April 28, is a rest day at the tournament. Game 14 is scheduled on April 29, in which the white pieces are with the GM of China. The next game starts 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.

The fan area sponsor for the World Championship Match is Rosseti Centre. 

General partner of the CFR is PhosAgro.

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Photo credit: Eteri Kublashvili