Your time is up, comrade grandmaster – Newspaper Kommersant No. 68 (7513) of 04/19/2023
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The crazy match for the world chess title in Astana continued with a crazy seventh game. In it, the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi, who played White, at some point seemed to get a position that did not promise anything good, but his opponent, the Chinese grandmaster Ding Liren, having almost guaranteed himself a draw, fell into terrible time trouble and made a mistake, allowing Nepomniachtchi to win in the third time in this fight to lead in the account.
It’s a paradox, but this game, so extraordinary, can be said to fit perfectly into the general, or something, outline of the Astana match, which is so different from the vast majority of matches for the world title – cautious, with tedious tug-of-war titanic efforts at best by millimeters. The duel between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren is about something else. It is about blows flying from all sides, about sparks from the eyes, about the unpredictability that seems to have become a rare guest in top classical chess for a long time. In Astana, there is more than enough of it. You never know what will happen the next day.
This also applies to the choice of opening. In the previous six games, four of them were played. The seventh added a fifth to the already rich collection – the French game, which was once adored by many serious grandmasters (for example, Viktor Korchnoi was a great connoisseur of this opening) and which, it must be said, has not been so much in demand at the highest level in recent years. But in Astana, thanks to Ding Liren, who moved the pawn to e6 with his first move, her hour also struck.
Ian Nepomniachtchi settled on the Tarrasch variation, in which the knight, developing, goes not to c3, under the pin from the bishop, but to d2, also being a little bit original.
And then the carousel spun, creating an extremely acute situation. Moreover, it seems that the Chinese wanted the witticism first of all, having weakened the black squares near his king with g6. And then he sacrificed an exchange, giving up a rook for the opponent’s bishop. Ding Liren performed a similar trick in the fourth installment, which brought him success. And now he looked quite justified: all for the sake of initiative.
A glance at the board was supposed to please the lover of all sorts of puzzling positions. Ian Nepomniachtchi presses along the h-file – you gape and checkmate arrives, Ding Liren has a tight answer in the center. What all this will result in is completely incomprehensible. But in general, most likely, it should have resulted in a draw. After all, Ding Liren was not able to make any kind of mortal threats, but he had a sure opportunity to actually guarantee a peaceful outcome with the 33rd move, moving the rook supported from the rear by the queen from d2 to d1 and giving check to the white king. Further, apparently, a repetition of moves would follow, since Nepomniachtchi had no chance to safely go on the counterattack. But something happened that the label “inexplicable” does not stick to just because the explanation for the Chinese blunder was at hand.
He has a habit of “hanging out” for a long time, getting into time trouble for a long time and does not disappear anywhere over the years.
Sometimes these “freezes” are not critical, they can be experienced. But in the seventh game, Ding Liren fell into severe time trouble: he had 45 seconds to go before the control, 40th, eight moves. In general, he sent the rook to d3, attacking the queen and not noticing that White’s strongest piece, running away from the shelling, takes an important pawn on c5, and also positions itself very comfortably, so that there is no trace of Black’s initiative. . And the material advantage, now huge by the standards of such confrontations, was already on the side of Nepomniachtchi.
Then he simply finished off the opponent – doubled the rooks, fell on the bishop and pawn defending the king. It was pointless for Ding Liren to try to defend himself. He resigned on the 37th move, and Ian Nepomniachtchi took the lead for the third time in the match.
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