Pravin Thipsay writes: Ding Liren holds the advantage as Game 13 ends in draw

With just the final game to go in the World Chess Championship, it’s advantage Ding Liren as his opponent Ian Nepomniachtchi failed to win with White pieces in Game 13 at the St Regis in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Thursday.Frankly, I’m a bit surprised with the way Nepo played on Thursday. Agreed he had a devastating loss on Wednesday and had no time to recover, but this is the World Championships! Aside from Magnus Carlsen, Ding and Nepo are supposed to be the best chess players in the world. They should be ready for any sort of challenge.
Nepo’s best shot at getting an outright win was Game 13. He had to play to his strengths and use variations which he’s familiar with. But on the 10th move, he chose a variation that hasn’t been popular. Actually, from the past 115 years at least, it is known that Bishop to e3 is not a good move. It’s played only amateurs. It’s quite well known that this variation gives the opponent the edge. There’s no way that Nepo wasn’t aware of this.
The Russian followed up the move with a premature central Pawn break on move 14. This gave Ding, who was supremely confident after the win on Wednesday, the upper hand. What’s shocking is that Nepo didn’t sense that he had not put himself in a good position and continued playing weak and weakening moves which enabled Ding to prepare for a central Pawn break which he activated on move 19.
move 20, Nepo was in an unenviable position. As has been the case in most games, it was Ding’s turn to play inaccurate moves. On move 21, he missed an opportunity to prepare for an assault against Nepo’s position supporting his Queenside Bishop, there releasing his Knight for Kingside action. All he had to play on the move was Rb8!, protecting the Queen Bishop, there threatening to move the Knight from ‘d5’ to ‘f4’ from a position in centre towards Nepo’s King. This, if coupled with Black Queen joining the attack, could have been extremely dangerous for Nepo.
He then continued his poor run playing pointless moves there enabling Nepo to get out of danger. It was here that Nepo’s ‘sense of danger’ came back and he began to play accurate moves to get out of trouble.
In a roughly equal position, Ding decided to ‘sacrifice an exchange’ (giving away a Rook for a minor piece) to create what looked like a fortress. Nepo could have retained some winning chances with a Knight maneuver on move 36 but decided to make a Rook move instead, which enabled Ding to force a draw with threefold repetition.
The match now seems to be tilting towards Ding as he will play with White Pieces in the last game to be played on Saturday. The rest day on Friday will offer him an opportunity to improve over the 12th game which he played with White. Of course, Nepo is going to play a solid system and we are more likely to see a Queen’s Gambit Declined on Saturday, rather than the Indian Defence.
If these 13 games have shown us anything, it is that both these players have tremendous scope for improvement. It’s extremely important for both of them to get into the details of their shortcomings. Specific shortcomings can be cured special experts. For example, opening variations. There are experts who will deal with only that.
Earlier World Championships contenders had a very strong strategic base. I think that is missing here completely. Ding’s tactics are good and Nepo’s strategic knowledge is good but both these players lack that in-depth knowledge.
Don’t get me wrong, they are still the best players. They have come this far because of their ability to calculate better. Their vigour and risk-taking ability are also superior to their contemporaries. They have a lot more to do, though.
(Pravin Thipsay is an Indian Grandmaster and a recipient of the Arjuna Award)
Moves (Game 13): 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Ba4 Nf6 5.0–0 Be7 6.d3 b5 7.Bb3 d6 8.c3 0–0 9.h3 Bb7 10.Be3?! Na5 11.Bc2 c5 12.Nbd2 Re8 13.a4 h6! 14.d4?! exd4 15.cxd4 cxd4 16.Nxd4 Nc4 17.Nxc4 bxc4 18.f3 Bf8 19.Bf2 d5! 20.exd5 Nxd5 21.Be4 Re5?! 22.Rc1 Rc8 23.Ne2 Qe7?! 24.Qd4! F5!? 25.Bg3! Rxe4 26.fxe4 Qxe4 27.Qxe4 fxe4 28.Rfd1 Nb4 29.Rd7 Bc5+ 30.Kh2 Bc6 31.Rc7 Rxc7 32.Bxc7 Bd5 33.Nc3 Nd3 34.Rc2 Bc6 35.a5 Kf7 36.Re2?! Nc1 37.Re1 Nd3 38.Re2?! Nc1 39.Re1 Nd3 40.Re2?! Game drawn ‘Threefold Repetition’.