Grandmasters will play last – Kommersant

The match for the world chess title in Astana will definitely have a dramatic finale. Before the last classical game, the score in it remained equal to 6.5:6.5: in the penultimate, 13th, Russian grandmaster Yang Nepomniachtchi, who played White, and the Chinese Ding Liren broke up in a draw. In the final round of the confrontation, Nepomniachtchi’s opponent will already have the white color.

In the 13th round of their match, Yang Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren played the Spanish game, the most popular opening of the Astana confrontation. He met in it for the fifth time, and in all cases it was the Russian grandmaster who played White. He was sure that all the same, the creative discussion in this seemingly up and down studied, but still fraught with a bunch of secrets, should be continued. Or maybe, having suffered a painful defeat the day before and not wanting to aggravate the situation on the eve of the finish line, he simply decided to opt for something he was definitely good at.

Those who were already accustomed to the whirlwinds that constantly appeared on the board in Astana could, of course, consider this game rather insipid. But it was insipid only by the standards of this specific duel. In fact, the events in it developed in a rather curious way.

Not entirely cautious, but measured course of the opening hinted that Ian Nepomniachtchi would come out of it with a slight advantage, but enough to try to crush his opponent.

Only now, with his 18th move, the attacked pawn on e4 was defended by the Russian by the neighboring one, moving it to f3, instead of using the queen, which is just at hand, for this operation. And this decision of his looked somehow clumsy: too timid, plus the cover of the king was weakened. There are gaping holes in the black fields beside him, inviting Ding Liren to try using them.

The Chinese, however, soon also bluffed a bit, throwing one of his rooks from the eighth rank to e5, into the center of the board. Some kind of terribly clumsy maneuver, from which, however, the sacrifice of Ding Liren’s exchange that revived the situation was later born.

The Chinese chess player exchanged his apparently slightly lost rook for a bishop grazing on e4. And it must be said that the move did not evoke any special emotions in the commentators of the match: in this case, the advantage for Black was obvious.

In the end, after the destruction of the queens, for this sacrificed quality, they received a pawn plus possession, unlike the opponent, of two bishops – pieces on an empty board are more useful than a knight, since they shoot further. And the elephants of Ding Liren, by the way, looked very unambiguously towards the residence of the white king. And this is always unpleasant for the one to whom the king obeys.

And finally, it is necessary to add to the picture a good interaction of all the pieces of the Chinese and a passed pawn on the e-file, which has three squares left to move to the promotion square. It was not exactly a deadly thunderstorm for Ian Nepomniachtchi, but it demanded close attention to itself: you gape – and nothing can be fixed. So the victim, in fact, was not a victim.

At the same time, the alignment still remained quite sharp. Nepomniachtchi had some chances in it to fight for the win, but for this he had to take a little risk, for example, dooming himself to a mandatory hunt for the same passer.

Everything became clear when, with his 36th move, the Russian moved the rook – from c2 to e2 – and allowed the black knight to attack it. The rook got out of the battle, the knight attacked it again, the heavy piece copied the route, the knight did the same… Neither player could improve the position, and the game ended in a draw, which, apparently, was both agree.

Now Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren are waiting for a day of rest and the final, 14th, classic game of the match on Saturday, which, if it also taxis to a peace treaty, will provide the match with a furious finale in the form of a tie-break in rapid chess and, possibly, also in blitz. The Chinese will have the white color in this game, and he won all three of his victories with him in Astana.

Alexey Dospekhov