It was the longest game of the match so far, by far (though nowhere near the epic sixth game of the Magnus Carlsen-Ian Nepomniachtchi match), but most of the excitement ended after the first time control. Ding Liren trotted out the match’s first Berlin (generating the sort of enthusiasm most famously seen when, in the frozen land of Nador, they were forced to eat Robin’s minstrels) and achieved equality in a well-traveled 4.d3 variation.
But Nepo and Ding seem incapable of playing uninteresting chess, and when Ding played 16…b5 and then met 17.Qe2 with …Rb8, he was already in some trouble after 18.Nh4. Both players alternated between excellent play and the occasional imprecision, and Ding was able to escape, after a whirlwind of exchanges at the end of the first time control, to a rook and knight ending a pawn down, with all the pawns on the kingside. Nepo rightly played on for a long time, but Ding’s defense was always fully competent and he stayed out of trouble throughout. The game (which you can replay, with my notes, here) went 82 moves before they split the point.
As today (Saturday) is a rest day, the extra time at the board probably won’t have too much of an effect on their play in game 10, tomorrow. Nepo continues to lead by a point, now at 5-4, and while there have been plenty of decisive games in the match so far Ding has only three white games left. The finish line is in sight.