Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren Draw Game Three
The overall score is 2:1 in favour of the Russian GM.
Following a rest day, Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) and Ding Liren (China) resumed their World Championship Match in the city of Astana on Tuesday, April 12. Talgat Musabayev, a cosmonaut and People's Hero of Kazakhstan, made the symbolic first move in game three. April 12, 1961, went down in history as the day when the carrier-rocket "Vostok" with the spaceship "Vostok-1" and with Yury Gagarin on board was launched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in the Kyzyl-Orda region of Kazakhstan. April 12 has been celebrated as Cosmonautics Day ever since.
Talgat Musabayev greeted the grandmasters and asked Nepomniachtchi, who was in charge of the white pieces, which move to make. "Whichever you like most!" – replied Ian open-heartedly. Upon a moment's reflection, Mr. Musabayev moved the queen's pawn up two squares. Ian moved the pawn back to its home square immediately after the ceremony only to play d2-d4 himself once the chief arbiter Nebojsa Baralic started the clock. Start of the game!
Ding Liren first probed his opponent for the Nimzo-Indian Defence preparedness and, upon receiving a positive feedback (White followed up 1...Nf6 2.c4 e6 by developing his knight to c3 without any shadow of a doubt), he switched to the Queen's Gambit. Nepomniachtchi opted for the solid Carlsbad variation and developed his king's knight to e2 as this setup is considered the most challenging for Black. However, White has abandoned his most principled (but also double-edged) plan with long castling: a favorable match situation allows the Russian grandmaster to avoid excessive risk-taking.
The initial 16 moves saw the opponents follow in the footsteps of the 2022 Giri – Ding Liren game from one of the online tournaments.
On move 17 Ian sidestepped by bringing his idle c1-knight back into the game: 17.N1e2 (in the above-mentioned game Black got full-fledged play following 17.Qf2 c5! 18.Bb5 Rd8 19.dxc5 Qxc5 20.Nb3 Qb6). Ding carried out the undermining c6-c5 anyway, which is not something to do without easily as black pieces lack space in their own camp. It could also force more mass liquidation on d4 a couple of moves later, although White in this case would have retained a minimum edge due to his more active pieces and his opponent's somewhat exposed queenside. The Chinese grandmaster went for a different, perhaps more reliable continuation – he decided to complete his queenside development first.
In turn, Ian committed an inaccuracy, and the initiative changed hands. Even though the isolated pawn on d5 needed protection, the active c4-knight made up for this weakness in full. White needed to come up with precise sequence to restore control over the situation. Soon the opponents went for repetition of moves, which resulted in a draw agreement on move 30.
The match score is now 2:1 in favour of Ian Nepomniachtchi. Game four is Thursday, April 13, in which the white pieces are with the GM of China. 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.
The fan area sponsor for the World Championship Match is Rosseti Centre.
General partner of the CFR is PhosAgro.
Tournament page
Pictures by Vladimir Barsky
