The most exciting game of the World Championship finished in tragedy for Ding Liren, who once again finds himself a point down to Ian Nepomniachtchi. He trails 4-3 at the halfway point of the match, going into a rest day. He had outplayed his opponent, neutralizing his opponent’s attack and, with a nice exchange sacrifice, took over the initiative. Perhaps Ding’s problem was that he took his position to be more promising than it really was - yes, he was better, but not that much better.
The critical moments, as many of you may have seen, came on moves 31 and 32. After 30 moves, Ding had 9:13 to reach the time control after move 40, and he spent more than three and a half minutes on his 31st move. It was a playable move, and very direct; he could have sat on the position until after the time control and then looked more deeply for a way forward. His move did provoke an inaccuracy from Nepo, though nothing fatal; Ding’s reaction, however, was fatal. Or rather, his non-reaction. He didn’t move until he had just 45 seconds left - remember, there’s no increment or delay - and while his move was okay he immediately followed it up with a blunder. He then missed a very tricky option, and after Nepo’s 36th move the game was over. Ding replied with three seconds left on the clock, but then resigned without waiting for a reply. His position was hopeless, and it’s not even clear that he could have made the remaining four moves in time, either, if Nepo would have made it his sole mission to win on the clock.
You’ll find far more details in the game file, and as it was a very interesting and well-played game (other than on Black’s 32nd move) it’s worth your time to dig in and explore. Have a look.
Ding has been remarkably resilient so far - both players have - so I see no reason to think that the match won’t continue to be exciting until the end. If this is what the post-Carlsen era is going to look like, I say “More, please!”