Ding Liren Wins the World Championship in the Tiebreaker
Three draws followed by a gutsy win in the last game.
The World Championship match between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi came down to the wire, and in the end it was Ding who was just a little bit tougher when it mattered most, a little more self-disciplined, as he squeaked out a win in the last rapid tiebreak game to take the match and become the new World Chess Champion, replacing Magnus Carlsen as the titular head of the chess world.
Both players were in good form in the rapid games, especially given how tired they must have been. In game 1 Ding played 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.c3, and after 3…c5 went for the principled/greedy 4.dxc5 e6 5.Be3. His prep went fairly deep, and he achieved a slight edge. Nepo went for a very interesting kingside attacking idea, and while its execution wasn’t completely correct (23.Qc2 would have given Ding excellent winning chances, if followed up with a few more accurate moves) it was quite dangerous. Nepomniachtchi’s idea entailed repeated queen sacrifices, but while it was enough to prevent him from getting massacred on the queenside, it wasn’t good for more than a draw against Ding’s doughty defense (excepting the missed opportunity mentioned above).
In game 2, yet another Closed Ruy with 6.d3, it was Nepo who obtained a significant advantage. His missed opportunity came on move 21, when he swapped on d6. In the resulting position he enjoyed some static pluses, but with dynamic play Ding held the balance and drew without much trouble. Had Nepo instead retained the tension with 21.Bg3, Black would have been in serious trouble.
Game 3 was the only calm game of the tiebreaker. Ding won a pawn with White in a sort of English/Reti hybrid, but this came in an ending with rooks and opposite-colored bishops that Nepo held with ease.
Finally, game 4. It was another Closed Ruy with 6.d3, with Nepo varying from the second tiebreak game on move 12. The follow-up of 13.Bb1, temporarily burying his bishop for the sake of pressure on the a-file, was the right thing to do, despite the possible problems posed to the prelate. (Always avoid alliteration, I know.) This needn’t have been much of a problem, but 16.Nc3 was a step in the wrong direction, while 20.Bd2 was nearly a step off the cliff. Ding didn’t manage to take full advantage, and then Nepo started playing better as well - better, and faster. His 29.Qf3 was an interesting decision, provoking the dubious but natural 29…e4. Had Nepo played the unobvious 35.Rd2 he’d have had a clear advantage, but after the obvious 35.Ra1 the position was equal.
It could have sputtered to a quick draw from there, but both players kept looking for ways to create trouble. Ding did so because there were more things that could go wrong with White’s position, if Nepo got a little careless, while for Nepo it made sense to keep trying because of his lead on the clock. It was when Ding played 43…Bb4 that things started to go wrong for his opponent. Nepo decided it was time to finally bail out and make a draw, but now Ding was uninterested in doing so, avoiding a perpetual with the brave, self-pinning 46…Rg6! My sense - possibly mistaken - is that Nepo had switched off a bit, expecting Ding to accede to the repetition as both positionally justified and as the sensible thing to do given Nepo’s lead on the clock. When Ding played 46…Rg6, Nepo did not react well, making a slight error and then a serious one, missing his opponent’s idea of 47…c4 followed by 48…Qd3.
Now Nepo was lost, but he kept fighting, and when Ding missed a direct win and made a series of errors Nepo clawed his way back to equality. That is to say, objective equality; practically, it was still his opponent who had the advantage. Ding couldn’t lose the position without an overt blunder, while Nepomniachtchi had to keep finding special moves. He didn’t manage to do it, and Ding finally collected the full point after his 68th move.
To state the obvious, the match was very close and could easily have gone in Nepo’s favor. My impression was that Nepo had more stretches during the games where he was the better player - his sustained top end seemed to me superior to Ding’s. Not much, perhaps, but I think I can defend that point of view. Ding’s superiority was in his self-discipline. When there were moves that had to be found, he found them, while Nepo would suffer from occasional lapses in concentration or would coast when he needed to dig into the weeds and work out all the details. Replay the match 100 times and the results will probably be pretty close to 50-50, so I don’t want to say that one player’s relative advantage is intrinsically superior to the other’s, it’s just that this time around, Ding’s superior self-discipline proved slightly more important than Nepo’s slightly superior ability to generate deep ideas. Next time - if Nepo somehow manages to win a third straight Candidates tournament - it might go the other way. It would be interesting, too, because both players should be able to close the gap relative to the other. Ding is a young man and still improving his chess, while Nepomniachtchi could certainly improve his mental game (perhaps in part by improving his fitness). We’ll see. It would be an incredible achievement if Nepo could win his third consecutive Candidates, which is something that has never been done.
I may have more to say later, but for now it’s time to take a nap - waking up at 5 a.m. is not exactly my thing. Here are today’s games, with my comments. Enjoy!
By the way, I found this interview and article to be pretty interesting - a lot of stuff that I didn't know about him and his general attitude and what he finds interesting: https://english.elpais.com/sports/2023-05-02/ding-liren-world-chess-champion-i-remembered-camus-if-you-cant-win-you-have-to-resist.html
Thanks for the report Dennis. Catching up with you again after often posting on your previous blog.
Nepo and fitness? A polite way of saying cut down on the pies etc.?