Nepomniachtchi frustrated by game 9 draw but still leads the World Championship by a point

Ian Nepomniachtchi showed clear disappointment at the conclusion of the drawn game 9 of the
World Chess Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan.

The players have changed opening variations every day and today Ding Liren played the
Berlin Defence to the Ruy Lopez. This option has been one of the most common choices
in high level chance for a long time now, it’s solid and black can research deeply.

Nepomniachtchi chose 4.d3 and Ding’s preparation seemed to run quite deep. 15….Qc7
was a very interesting idea but Ding did not follow it up correctly, 17…Rb8?!
whilst not horrible is the move that started to cause difficulties, the pawn sacrifice
17…Bf8 was best (it’s so sound it’s even doubtful Nepomniachtchi would have taken it).

Ding’s position took on a ragged appearance with his pawn structure being very poor on the
queenside. The computers thought Ding was OK after the risky looking 24….Rc2, instead
24…Rb5 was played and two moves later with 26…Be6 Ding was forced to offer the exchange.
Nepomniachtchi turned it down and took the Bishop on e6 instead, it’s hard to blame
him for this but grabbing the exchange might have led to more winning chances. With
32.Qxa4 white liquidated into an endgame. Ding had a choice to make on move 38….Nd2 looked
risky but the neat trick 39.g4 Nf4! produces equality. After not finding this (and it’s a very
strange idea) Ding went into an endgame a pawn down which should be drawn with best play
but which also guaranteed a bit of suffering. Nepomniachtchi pressed hard and put Ding
under pressure. Ding was equal to the task and after 55.h3! he gradually took the game
to a completely drawn position.

Nepomniachtchi immediately after the game showed annoyance with himself that he didn’t
win, he played the endgame at least pretty well but in the end he just didn’t have
a winning position. Maybe if he’d grabbed the exchange he might have won but that could
have got very messy indeed.

Ding Liren: “Everything is connected – time management, quality of moves, calculation of lines. So, today I spent less time on the calculation, but the quality, as you can see, suffered a lot.”..
“I thought it was an easy draw but then I realised it was not so simple. I could easily get a lost position. So, I thought that maybe …h3 is the only move to save the game.”
…”I prepared this line some time ago. But then I totally missed the idea of my opponent, and at some point, I couldn’t find the continuation of the game. Maybe I had a chance there; I should spend more time in some positions.”

Ian Nepomniachtchi: “I should have created more problems at the endgame, but it was not so easy to move my pawns forward. The endgame looks maybe dangerous for Black, but probably there is a draw.”

Score Nepomniachtchi 5-4 Ding, best of 14.

Rest Day Saturday 22nd April 2023.

Game 10 Ding Liren vs Ian Nepomniachtchi on Sunday 23rd April 10am UK time.