The French defense – a novelty in the Chinese grandmaster’s repertoire, certainly blown away by his second-in-command, the whimsical Richard Rapport – did not succeed in Ding Liren. Leading the white pieces, Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi won a third victory in his 2023 World Chess Championship duel against Chinese Ding Liren on Tuesday (April 18th) in Astana, allowing him to lead 4-3 and regain the advantage for the third time.
This 2023 world championship, already unprecedented by the refusal of world No. 1 and defending champion Magnus Carlsen to defend his crown, continues to surprise even specialists. Where the games between the best players end most of the time in a draw, it is the fifth confrontation out of the seven already played which ends in a victory for one of the two players. Never has an International Chess Federation World Championship seen so many victories in the first seven duels since the legendary match between Russian Boris Vassilievich Spassky and American Robert James Fischer in 1972.
Ian Nepomniachtchi – Ding Liren, 7th game of the Astana match, French defense 1.e4 e6!? 2.d4 d5 3.Nd2 c5 4.Ngf3 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Nf6 6.exd5 Nxd5 7.N2f3 Be7 8.Bc4 Nc6 9.Nxc6 bxc6 10.0–0 0–0 11.Qe2 Bb7 12.Bd3 Qc7 13.Qe4 Nf6 ?!, Ding Liren in a position plays too passively. see review below…
14.Qh4 c5 15.Bf4 Qb6 16.Ne5 Tad8 17.Rae1 g6 18.Bg5 Rd4 19.Qh3 Qc7 20.b3 Nh5 21.f4 Bd6 22.c3 Nxf4 23.Bxf4 Rxf4 24.Rxf4 Bxe5 25.Rh4 Rd8 26. Be4 Bxe4 27.Thxe4 Rd5 28.Rh4 Qd6 29.Qe3 h5 30.g3 Bf6 31.Rc4 h4 32.gxh4 Rd2 33.Re2 Rd3?, much better was 33…Rd5!, 34.Qxc5 Rd1 35.Kg2 Qd3 36.Rf2 Kg7 37.Rcf4 Qxc3 and Black loses on time, 1-0
From the 1st move, 1…e6, constitutive of the French positional defense, once the favorite weapon of the dissident grandmaster Viktor Korchnoï, Ding Liren surprised the observers and perhaps Nepo himself, who reassured himself by choosing the solid Karpov Variation, 3…Nd2!?. At first the Chinese grandmaster first obtained a balanced position.
Unfortunately not accustomed to his patterns, and looking too markedly for a soothing draw, a dithering Ding Liren found himself in zeitnot (lack of time) with only 45 seconds to play eight moves. As the last seconds of his thinking time ticked away, Ding launched into a dead-end desperado attack. In a desperate position, he exceeded his allotted time, synonymous with the loss of the game.
Now down 3-2, the Chinese champion must try to equalize in the 8th game which will be played on Thursday 20 April.