The fight for the crown in the game of kings goes into overtime. After a draw in the 14th and final game of the World Chess Championship in Kazakhstan’s capital Astana, the Russian Jan Nepomnyachtchi and the Chinese Ding Liren are 7-7.
The title will be decided on Sunday (04/30/2023) in a tie-break in rapid chess with greater time pressure. The winner of the duel will succeed the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, who lost motivation after ten years on the chess throne and decided not to defend his title.
The game starts on Sunday (from 11:00 a.m.) in a four-game playoff. If there is still no winner after that, further games are on the program. The time pressure in each duel continues to increase.
“Nepo” with counterattack
On Saturday, Ding had the advantage of being able to open the game with the white pieces. After three of the six games he had previously started, he was the winner. Ding initially remained true to himself and opened the duel again with the pawn move on d4, “Nepo” also didn’t risk anything and went again to the Nimzowitsch-Indian Defence.
With his twelfth move, a knight move, Ding put pressure on his opponent. He raised it on move number 14 when he advanced his pawn to h4. But Nepomnyachtchi created a counterattack. Ding had to think for a long time again, was the first player to have less than an hour left and had to focus more and more on the clock.
Almost seven hours of gameplay
In the further course, Nepomnjachtchi was able to gain a slight advantage shortly before the end of the first 40 moves, but gave it up again and reacted angrily with himself. the draw after almost seven hours was the logical consequence.