Yan Nepomniachtchi let down the quality – Newspaper Kommersant No. 65 (7510) dated 04/14/2023

Russian grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi has parted ways with the lead obtained at the start of the match for the world title, which takes place in Astana. China’s Ding Liren equalized the score in the duel thanks to a very bright, with the sacrifice of material for the sake of attack, victory in the fourth game with the white pieces.

The outcome of this game should have terribly alerted those who are worried about Ian Nepomniachtchi in this match. A few days ago he seemed no longer just his favorite, but an indisputable, one hundred percent favorite. And the point here is not even that Nepomniachtchi managed to quickly take the lead, taking the upper hand in the second game with black. These games with classical time control are stipulated by the match regulations for 14 – the distance is long enough not to attach importance to a single misfire during acceleration. It was the style of the opponents’ game. With Nepomniachtchi, she was familiar in recent years – confident, impudent. With Ding Liren, he was timid, twitchy, seemingly confirming the assumption that he, a debutant of special fights, would find it difficult to resist a man whose career has already had a special fight, albeit a lost one — Magnus Carlsen in Dubai in 2021.

But all of a sudden, everything changed. Ding Liren appeared to be a chess player more or less corresponding to his position in the International Chess Federation (FIDE) rating, in which he is in third position, right behind Ian Nepomniachtchi, still in the third game. But she came out too calm. And in the next one, Ding Liren appeared as an insanely dangerous chess player, as if not a victim, but a hunter.

The contenders for the vacant title, which Carlsen parted ways with in the summer of 2022, played an interesting opening – the English Opening, a variation of four knights.

And Ding Liren immediately showed that he was in an aggressive mood: he did not fall for Nepomniachtchi’s maneuver, which dragged the knight to the edge of the board, but captured the center – three pawns placed shoulder to shoulder rammed into Black’s redoubts.

And then the Chinese emphasized his intentions even more clearly by sacrificing a pawn, not for the sake of attack, but for activity. And it turned out that Nepomniachtchi, who had just been impeccable, faced with someone else’s insolence, could falter. On the 28th move, of course, he had to move the pawn to g5, defending another, the very extra one that the Chinese gave him. But Nepomniachtchi greedily jumped his knight to d4, attacking the queen. He was sure that Ding Liren would retreat, and he took the knight with the rook, putting it under attack. It was another sacrifice, the so-called sacrifice of quality. The rook is by default more valuable than the knight by about two pawns.

But this is by default. And in a specific position that arose on the board, Ding Liren himself got a gorgeous knight on b3, which was not difficult to transfer from there to the right half of the board in order to put pressure on Black’s heavy pieces stuck in the rear – the queen and rooks. And nothing could interfere with this maneuver.

Having discovered with horror that he had gone astray, Ian Nepomniachtchi was still resisting, still looking for a way to salvation.

But Ding Liren brought the game to a win with an iron fist, without a single blot. And after this performance of his, the big question is who should be considered the favorite in the match.

Alexey Dospekhov