Ding Liren ground out Ian Nepomniachtchi in the marathon six-and-a-half-hour-long match to draw the 14th game and enforce tiebreaks in the World Chess Championship in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Saturday.
Playing with white pieces, Ding started with the queen’s pawn opening 1d4, which eventually transposition to Nimzo-Indian defence by the third move.
ALSO READ | IAN NEPOMNIACHTCHI VS DING LIREN WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP GAME 13 REPORT
The Chinese started the exchange on the seventh move by pawn to c5, which Nepomniachtchi took back with the bishop to c5 on the next move.
After the initial piece’s development and exchanges, Ding made a slight error on the 34th move when he played his king to e2, which gave Nepomniachtchi an edge according to the engines however was not decisive.
Till the 41st move, both players were left with the same coloured rook, but Ding had one less pawn.
CHECK OUT THE FULL BOARD FOR GAME 14 OF THE WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP. BOARD COURTESY - CHESS.COM
Ding played with precision and carefully manoeuvred his pieces to frustrate Nepo even with one less pawn on the board.
His tremendous endgame play helped him to hold the Russian in the 90-move-long game as the World Championship 2023 moves to the reserved day for tiebreaks that are scheduled for Sunday.
TIEBREAKER RULES
- A match consisting of 4 rapid games with 25 minutes per side and a 10-second increment starting with move 1 will be played. If a player scores 2½ points or more, he would win the championship.
- If the score is equal after the rapid portion, a mini-match of two blitz games will be played, with a time control of 5 minutes per side and a 3-second increment starting with move 1. If a player scores 1½ points or more, he would win the championship. If the blitz mini-match is tied, another mini-match with the same conditions will be played to decide the winner of the championship.
- If both blitz mini-matches are tied, a single game with a time control of 3 minutes per side and a 2-second increment starting with move 1 will be played, and the winner would win the championship. A drawing of lots shall decide which player plays with the white pieces. If this game is drawn, another blitz game with reversed colours will be played with the same time control, and the winner would win the championship. This process will be repeated until either player wins a game.
Comments
SHARE