10 April 2023

Ian Nepomniachtchi Defeats Ding Liren in Game 2

The score is 1.5-0.5 in the Russian GM's favour.

Game 2 of the FIDE World Championship Match between Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) and Ding Liren (China) took place in Astana on Monday, April 10. Timur Turlov, President of the Kazakhstan Chess Federation and general sponsor of the match, made the symbolic first move.

White pieces were with the GM of China. The opponent blitzed out into one of the classical QGD tabia, at which point Ding Liren surprised his opponent by advancing the h2-pawn to h3 as early as move four. The Internet chats immediately flooded with assumptions about this being a broadcast "bug", but your correspondent was in the game room and only to witness this move with his own eyes, but also to have it captured on the photo.

Smile was Ian's natural reaction, but he then took his head in his hands and went into a deep think. Modern computers have taught us to play in different ways, including rook pawn advances early in the opening. Ding Liren undoubtedly moved h2-h3 not out of a desire to look clever, but this decision involved some hefty home preparation. Nepomniachtchi took unusually long time over his opening moves - about 40 minutes - while Ding came back almost immediately at first. However, Ian's thinking time panned out: he came up with a setup in which the rook pawn move proved not only a loss of tempo, but also a definite kingside weakening.

The first critical moment arrived as early as move eleven, when Black offered a temporary pawn sacrifice. It was then the turn for the Chinese grandmaster to think deep.

Just like Ian had done the day before, Ding would not go for the material but rather opted for a different continuation to lead to even greater complications. There soon arose a position with the opposite-side castling that was somewhat reminiscent of the opening tabia that Vladimir Kramnik and Vishy Anand had tested several times in their 2008 crown match.

Ding seemingly pinned his hopes on his move seventeen, looking to get at the opponent's king first. However, Ian's cold-blooded rejoinder showed that nothing would come out of this idea and that White was simply wasting his time. White's next move also did not pan out as desired, upon which Black's initiative shaped into a formidable attack.

Nepomniachtchi went on to convert his advantage in a confident manner. He gave up the exchange, getting two pawns in return, and his bishops began dominating over the entire board. Black's far-advanced queenside pawns started rolling forward before long, and Ding Liren resigned in view of inevitable material losses.

The match score is now 1.5:0.5 in favour of Ian Nepomniachtchi. Tuesday, April 11, is a rest day in Astana. Game three of the match is to take place on Wednesday, April 12, with the Russian GM having the white pieces. The game begins at 12 PM 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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