Pravin Thipsay writes: Not pushing hard for win is perhaps Vladimir Kramnik’s influence on Nepo

There were reports that former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik is helping Ian Nepomniachtchi in his fight against Ding Liren at the 2023 World Chess Championship. While we don’t know if it’s actually true, we can see that Nepo has been playing a lot like Kramnik in the last two Games.Game 11 on Monday was the second consecutive game in which Nepo didn’t really seem to be interested in going for a win. Mind you, this time he was playing with White. (Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay has been analysing games of the World Chess Championship for The Indian Express since the start of the event. You can also read his analysis of Game 10,  Game 9, Game 8, Game 7, Game 6, Game 5, Game 4, Game 3, Game 2, and Game 1.)That begs the question: why should he push for a win? He has a comfortable lead of one point (6-5) and there are just three games to go in this title clash. He could really become a world champion this week.
Not pushing hard for a victory is perhaps Kramnik’s influence on him. The Soviet school of thought is that it’s more difficult to win than to draw a game, so why push for a win if you don’t need to?
Kramnik would’ve told him to play it safe. Even when Kramnik defeated Garry Kasparov to win the World Championship in 2000, he had more draws than wins. He won just two games in the 16-game match and that was enough for him to triumph 8.5-6.5. The key part here is that he didn’t lose a single match. Interestingly, it was the first time since 1921 that a defending champion lost his crown without winning a single game in the Championships.
That’s definitely the leaf Nepo has taken out of Kramnik’s book, if he has learned anything from him during these couple of weeks. He’s going to continue keeping it simple.
That’s what he did on Monday. He knew that going on the attack often exposes the defense that Ding would surely pounce on. So why should he take a risk and lose with White?
He knows that he just needs to keep it tight and even if he loses one game, the match will go into tie-breakers and I do believe that he will be much better prepared for that scenario than Ding.
It was perhaps with this thought that he chose the tried and tested Ruy Lopez Spanish opening in Game 11. But Ding knows that he has to try something out of the box in order to draw level and give himself a chance at winning. The Chinese replied with the variation he had chosen in the fifth game, showing that he had prepared something better.
Sensing that Ding was ready to play a complex game, Nepo went for a quieter option on move 8, making it clear that he was going to play something similar to Game 5, but at a much slower pace.
Ding went for a less flexible option on move 8, there forcing the positional course of the game. Unlike game 5, Ding placed his Queen Bishop on the correct square this time. Nepo tried to make some headway with a novelty (new move) on move 15 but Ding replied with a sharp aggressive move, trying to create initiative on the Queen side at the cost of weakening his position.
Nepo did get a slight positional advantage but on move 19, he decided to simplify matters opening up the position. The next twenty moves were almost forced but quite simple. The players claimed a draw after a ‘three-fold repetition’ of the final position.
Nepo made it clear that he is not going to go for double-edged battles as long as he is leading. And we’re seeing a very matured Nepo here. He’s not going to crumble as he did against five-time World Champion Magnus Carlsen in 2021. He’s prepared, and not making impulsive decisions.
Let’s not forget there’s a lot riding on Ding too. Being the first Grandmaster from China to compete for the World crown, there’s certainly a lot of pressure on him. He has two games with White and that’s what I think could be decisive. He has to go all-out in Game 12 on Wednesday if he wants a direct win or will he leave the best for last in the 14th game?
In the Candidates to qualify for this Championship, he won in the last game (finished second behind Nepo). But that was only the Candidates. There’s a lot more at stake here and he definitely can’t afford to wait.
(Pravin Thipsay is an Indian Grandmaster and a recipient of the Arjuna Award)
Moves (Game 11)
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.a3 Na5
[Less flexible option.] 9.Ba2 c5 10.Nc3 Be6 11.Bg5 0–0 12.Bxf6 Bxf6 13.Nd5 g6 14.Qd2 Bg7 15.Ng5! [New Move.] 15…c4?! 16.Nxe6 fxe6 17.Ne3 Bh6 18.Rad1 Rb8 19.dxc4?! 19…Nxc4 20.Bxc4 bxc4 21.Qxd6 Qxd6 22.Rxd6 Bxe3 23.fxe3 Rxf1+ 24.Kxf1 Rxb2 25.Rxe6
Rxc2 26.Rxa6 Ra2 27.Rc6 Rxa3 28.Rxc4 Rxe3 29.Kf2 Ra3 30.Rc5 Ra2+ 31.Kf3 Ra3+ 32.Kg4 Ra2 33.Kh3 Re2 34.Rxe5 Kf7 35.Kg3 Kf6 36.Re8 Kf7 37.Re5 Kf6 38.Re8 Kf7 39.Re5
Game drawn the rule of ‘threefold repetition.