Key events
Nepomniachtchi plays the natural 13. … Qc7 after an eight-minute think. That threatens the white-squared bishop and calls for a retreat (Bb3). Anything else could prove fatal for Ding. Surely he’ll spot it.
Nepomniachtchi settles on 12. … h6. Ding answers with 13. h4. This could get exciting!
“He’s really going for it,” Caruana says on the Chess.com broadcast. “We see that objectively speaking black is doing all right, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to be easy. We might see another wild game with evaluation swings up and down. I’m going to predict a decisive result now.”
Nepomniachtchi has settled in for his first big think of the game. He’s spent more than 10 minutes considering how to properly defend against Ding’s ambitious 12. Ng5.
Ding spends another five minutes before playing 12. Ng5 then stepping away from the board. That appears to be an inaccuracy. But the aggressive kingside attack is also a statement of intent that he’s going for the full point today. Nepomniachtchi looks as surprised as anyone as he returns to the board to mull his response.
Nigel Short, the British grandmaster who famously challenged Garry Kasparov for the world title in 1993, is happy with it.
Ding finally settles on 11. Rd1. Nepomniachtchi quickly responds with 11. … Be7, which the engines don’t love. There’s still plenty of time on both clocks, but it’s worth mentioning that Ding has fallen nearly 20 minutes behind his opponent after 11 moves.
Ding plays 9. Qc2 after more than 13 minutes. Nepomniachtchi quickly responds, capturing with 9. … dxc4. Ding thinks it over for a minute or so before recapturing with 10. Bxc4. Nepomniachtchi plays 10. … Nbd7 before walking away from the board again.
“Ding has not won this opening battle,” former world title challenger Fabiano Caruana says on Chess.com’s broadcast. “Considering that we’re very likely to go into a rapid playoff tomorrow, I think we should have a discussion about Ding’s openings. The way I see it, with the white pieces, he is completely dry at this point. He has run out of opening ideas. Maybe in classical a draw is OK, but in rapid you really want to be able to pressure with the white pieces.”
Ding appears to already be out of his prep. He’s spent more than 10 minutes and counting pondering his response to 8. … Bxc5, head cradled in hands over the board while Nepomniachtchi comes and goes from the rest room.
Ding left the board after playing 5. Bd2. After 6. a3 Be7 7. Nf3 c5, the players exchange c-pawns (8. dxc5 Bxc5).
Game 14 is under way!
Both players are at the board for today’s game. Ding plays the Queen’s Pawn opening (1. d4), Nepomniachtchi answers with the Indian Defense (1. … Nf6) and a normal variation of the Nimzo-Indian ensues: 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 Bb4 4. e3 O-O 5. Bd2 d5.
Ding will be playing with the favored white pieces today. It’s worth noting that most of his success over the past three weeks have come with white.
The format
Here’s a review of the format for the world championship match. It will consist of 14 classical games with each player awarded one point for a win and a half-point for a draw. Whoever reaches seven and a half points first will be declared the champion.
Both Nepomniachtchi and Ding are on six and a half points each after the first 13 games.
The time control for each game is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game plus an additional increment of 30 seconds per move starting on move 61.
Here’s what’s in store for tomorrow if Nepomniachtchi and Ding play to a draw today and the classical portion ends in a 7-all tie:
A four-game rapid playoff with a 25+10 time control. A drawing of lots will decide which player starts with white.
If still tied, the players will contest a two-game playoff with a 5+3 time control. A drawing of lots will decide which player starts with white.
If still tied, the players will contest another two-game playoff with a 5+3 time control. A drawing of lots will decide which player starts with white.
If still tied, the players will play 3+2 games until there is a winner. A drawing of lots will again decide who starts with white, with colors alternating after each game.
The complete official regulations can be found here.
Prelude
Hello and welcome to Game 14 of the World Chess Championship. Second-ranked Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia and third-ranked Ding Liren of China are all square at 6½-6½ with one classical game remaining in their scheduled best-of-14-games match at the St Regis Astana Hotel for the winner’s share of a €2m ($2.2m) prize fund and the sport’s most prestigious title.
The legitimacy of that title, of course, is an open question. While this year’s championship match has featured two of the world’s top three, it’s the absence of the third which has largely neutered the stakes of the sport’s showcase event.
Magnus Carlsen, who was regarded as the world’s greatest player even before rising to the No 1 ranking more than a decade ago, has decided against defending his world title for a fifth time, citing a lack of motivation. It marks only the second time in the 137-year history of world championship matchplay that a holder has opted not to defend his crown – after American grandmaster Bobby Fischer controversially forfeited the belt in 1975.
Instead, we’ve been treated to a delicious, topsy-turvy matchup between Nepomniachtchi and Ding, even if critics including longtime world champion Garry Kasparov have branded it as an “amputated” event without the world’s best player involved.
If either player can earn a full point from today’s game, they will be declared the new world champion. If today’s game ends in a draw, the title will be decided tomorrow over a series of rapid and blitz tie-break games.
We are roughly 15 minutes from the ceremonial first move, which will be made by Sagatkhanovich Ashimbayev, the chairperson of the Senate of the Parliament of Kazakhstan.
Bryan will be here shortly. In the meantime here’s Leonard Barden’s lookahead to today’s Game 14.
