9 April 2023

Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren Draw Game 1

Game 2 is scheduled on April 10, Monday.

Game 1 of the world championship match between Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) and Ding Liren (China) took place on Sunday, April 9, in the city of Astana. Askhat Oralov, Minister of Culture and Sports of the Republic of Kazakhstan, made the symbolic first move. Also present there was FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich. He solemnly moved the pawn from d2 to d4 while smiling for numerous mass media representatives. As soon as the official ceremony was over, Ian returned the queenside pawn back to its starting position and pushed its neighbor forward instead with e2-e4!

The grandmasters handled the opening into the Ruy Lopez, with Ian taking his opponent by surprise as early as move six by exchanging the "Spanish" bishop for the c6-knight. Even thought this line of the exchange variation with White losing a tempo (because the bishop retreats to a4 first and captures on c6 only afterwards) is much less common than the immediate 4. Bxc6, it is not entirely harmless. This continuation seems to have caught Ding off guard, and he emerged out of the opening with a somewhat inferior position lacking any counterplay.

However, the opposite-coloured bishops afforded Black a solid margin of safety no matter White's pressure on c7 and his better pawn structure. The English-language broadcast commentators – the 15th world champion Viswanathan Anand (India) and a many-time U.S. champion Irina Krush – focused on the endgame prospects early in their discussion, highlighting White's winning a pawn but the opponents remaining with only a queen and a bishop as a result. The endgame looked nearly like a draw, but Anand managed to come up with resources for White time and again, thus maintaining White's chances of winning. However, Ian opted for a deliberately solid plan: he would only agree to exchange rooks if his pawn structure changed as a result, and he would not rush to trade the knights.

The tranquil course of the struggle seems to have lulled Ding Liren, who committed a serious inaccuracy on move 25 by weakening his queenside voluntarily. Ian immediately took advantage of it by going for the rooks exchange himself and storming into the enemy camp with his queen. Move 29 gave White a choice of opportunities between winning either the a5- or c5-pawns. However, both cases offered Black an opportunity to activate the pieces and get a certain counterplay.

Ian took a deep think and opted for yet a different approach by aiming at strangling his opponent's pieces with equal material on the board. Known for his defensive tenacity, Ding managed to cleverly regroup his forces and hold even a rather unpleasant position like this. The game ended by repetition on move 49.

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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