Ding Liren has levelled the World Championship match at 6:6 with two games to go after an incredible Game 12. Ian Nepomniachtchi played a dubious opening but won the middlegame battle and was suddenly playing fast and well in a dominant position. A win would mean almost certainly becoming the 17th World Chess Champion, but Ian played too fast, lost control and ultimately crumbled under pressure. Match on!
The agony and the ectasy! | photo: Stev Bonhage, FIDE
Replay the live commentary on Game 12 of the FIDE World Championship match in Astana from Fabiano Caruana, Tania Sachdev and Robert Hess.
Replay Game 12 with computer analysis
Just when it seemed Ian Nepomniachtchi was going to triumph and take an almost insurmountable 7:5 lead, Ding Liren found a way to win and the match is level again with just two classical games to go.
Up to a point, Game 12 of the World Championship match was almost a carbon copy of Game 2. Ding Liren had the white pieces, and even if his 3.e3, going for the unassuming Colle System, couldn’t compare with 4.h3!? in that earlier game for surprise value, it seemed to work almost equally well.
6…Bd7!? had hordes of watching grandmasters puzzling over what was going on. Fabiano Caruana joked that perhaps Ian needed to sneeze mid-move.
7.Ne5, taking advantage of no pressure being applied to the e5-square by a knight on c6, is instantly suggested as strong by the computer, but Ding Liren decided to follow a standard plan. Ian suggested in the post-game press conference that it was all his prep, but if it was, it was curious prep, since it meant getting a known position a full tempo down.
Here Ding was effectively able to make two moves at the same time, 8.0-0 and 9.Re1.
It was exactly the same as in Game 2, where Ian had headed for a known position a move down, and once again, on the same move 12, Ding was given a chance to capture on f6 and double Black’s f-pawns.
Back then Ding made the shocking admission that he hadn’t realised gxf6 was an option for Black, since it was possible to capture with the queen, but here Black literally had no choice. Nevertheless, Ding again went for 12.Bxf6!?, after a 28-minute think. What had been on his mind?
I was choosing between 12.Bxf6 and 12.Ng3. On 12.Ng3 I saw 12…Nh5 13.h3 Bxf3 14.Qxf3 Nxg3 15.fxg3 Bxg3 and maybe 16.Re3, but here 16…Bd6 works, so I have to choose between these two seemingly equal variations. It’s very hard to decide which one is better.
In that other line White has some compensation for the pawn, but no more, so that it was perhaps surprising that Ding didn’t look at quieter options.
Just as in Game 2, Nepomniachtchi had the open g-file and the bishop pair, and played f5. This time, however, at least initially, it wasn’t clear who would get to have the most fun. Ding went for a bold plan with Nh5 and 17.g4!?
Objectively the position was equal, but the stakes were high for both players, with one mistake potentially fatal. It was Ding Liren who stumbled first, with the puzzling 19.Bc2?! played after 13 minutes.
He realised his mistake afterwards:
I think my mistake earlier is Bc2. I should have played 19.Rg1 I guess, 19…Bh2 and then 20.Rf1, maybe that’s an improvement over the game.
Although that does indeed look like an improvement, it might simply have ended in a draw, with a potential instant move repetition after 20…Bd6, in case Ding can find nothing better than putting his rook on g1 again.
20.Rg3!? is a very interesting exchange sacrifice, but in the game this is when, once again as in Game 2, Nepomniachtchi began to take over. Playing fast and well, he went for 19…Nh4! 20.Qe3 Rg6! 21.Rg1 f4! 22.Qd3 Qe7!
23.Rae1 Qg5! followed. Ding commented:
I thought I was better out of the opening, but after he played a series of very good moves the tables turned around, and I realised after he played f4 and then Qe7, quite strong, also Qg5, the best, after that I thought I was nearly lost.
Ding Liren has come a huge way from how he appeared in Game 1, startled in the headlights of the World Championship match | photo: Stev Bonhage, FIDE
Was he panicking? Surprisingly, no. He answered a question about a comment from Fabiano Caruana that the game was not about chess but pure nerves.
I agree with the first part of his words. It’s not about chess, since I know the quality is very low, but actually I’m not so nervous at this point. At one point I felt it’s total silence in the playing hall, and I didn’t feel anybody watching the games. It seems to be a very important game, but I didn’t feel it at all. I had to tell myself that it’s quite important, I have to focus! I didn’t feel any kind of emotion at that point, but the game itself is quite bad.
Perhaps that detachment helped the Chinese no. 1 to take a drastic decision fast, as he decided to muddy the waters with 24.c4!?
Ian felt that playing the best move in the position here, 24…dxc4!, was his downfall in the game.
I guess it’s still about chess, and it’s not the best thing to do to lose a supposedly winning position. I guess after c4 something like 24…Rc8, provoking 25.c5, would be very, very clean, and then basically White has no counterplay, so it’s in my opinion pretty much over, since 25.cxd5? doesn’t work [25…Qxd5+! 26.Qe4 Rxc2!], but somehow I decided to go for some forcing lines, and met the consequences.
Where did it all go wrong for Ian Nepomniachtchi, was the recurring post-game question | photo: Stev Bonhage, FIDE
24…Rc8!? would have been a serious concession, however, with the computer claiming Black is no longer completely winning after 25.b3. Instead 24…dxc4! 25.Qc3 b5! was powerful.
In fact if Ian had seen the possible 26.Bxg6 hxg6 27.d5+ e5 28.Ng3 fxg3 29.fxg3 b4! it was sheer genius.
The queen can’t remain on the 3rd rank (30.Qe3 Qxe3 31.Rxe3 Bc5!) and the knight escapes alive to deliver a fork on f3, winning the game.
Ding went for 26.a4, however, which is where Fabiano Caruana felt the key moment came, since Ian could have kept things together with 26…a6. Ding said he was planning 27.axb5 axb5 28.d5+ e5 29.Ra1, but it doesn’t seem to help his cause.
Here, however, Ian went for the much sharper 26…b4, but then after 27.Qxc4 took just 27 seconds to lose the lion’s share of his advantage. Ding Liren pointed the moment out in the post-game press conference.
27…Nf3! 28.Qc6 Nxe1! 29.Qxa8+ Rg8 30.Qe4 Nxc2 is very sharp, but it all works out for Black.
Instead Ian went for 27…Rag8?!, when Ding could finally see light at the end of the tunnel.
That gave me much easier play and my queen has developed to a very good square.
In fact 28.Bxg6! first was White’s best move, but things were moving so fast here it was hard to keep track, with 28.Qc6!? strong, and provoking what was in fact a serious mistake, 28…Bb8?!, played after just a minute.
It was a wild show!
Ding said of the winning move for White, 29.Bxg6!, “I considered it a little bit, but I think when I saw 29.Qb7, followed by 30.Be4, I thought it’s quite good for White”.
As we would soon see, Ding had indeed found a good plan, but 29…Nf5! would have put a spanner in the works and perhaps led to a very different outcome. Once again, however, Ian Nepomniachtchi’s greatest strength, his speed of playing sharp, tactical positions, had become his greatest weakness. He took just over a minute to play 29…Rh6?!
When Ding responded 30.Be4! he began to feel he could be better, while Ian confessed, “strangely I didn’t see any ideas for me anymore”.
Caruana, who knows what it feels like to play a World Championship match, commented of Nepomniachtchi at this moment:
If he keeps rushing, he could easily lose. I don’t understand this decision to rush every move. It’s a World Championship. You have usually one chance in your lifetime, maybe two — this is obviously Ian’s second World Championship match — how can you play every move like it’s a Titled Tuesday game. These are responsible decisions to make.
Here Ian did pause for 10 minutes, but he failed to find some very sharp solutions with 30…Bd6!? 31.Qxa7 Nf5! or 30…f3!? 31.Qxf7 (31.Bxf3? Qd2!) 31…Ng2! and went for 30…Rf8!?, when Ding could pick up the b-pawn, leaving a complete reversal of the material balance earlier in the game.
In what followed Ian’s fast play finally felt more justified, since Ding was getting dangerously low on time, but the Chinese star went for a very solid and venomous setup with 33.Bg2!? and simply 34.Re2!, defending the f2-pawn.
The computer claims that Black can more or less do nothing here, limiting the damage, but that’s hard for a human, since in the long-term White will create and push a passed pawn on the queenside. At the end of the game Ian said he suggested 34…f3?! 35.Qxf3 f5 to Ding, but that also seems to lose to 36.Qe3!
Nevertheless, anything would have been better than the move he played in just under three minutes, 34…f5?
Ding was a good executioner, in the sense that he didn’t leave his opponent in an agony of anticipation but took just a minute to play the winning 35.Rxe6! It wasn’t clear exactly what Ian missed, though it’s noteworthy that if the queen was on g5, defending the h6-rook and the e5-square, Black would be winning after 35…fxg4. As it was, however, d5+ there would win the house.
Ian had been on the brink of taking a 2-0 lead with two games to go, almost guaranteeing that he would become the 17th World Chess Champion, but he’d thrown it all away.
The agony went on and on.
There were shades of how Gukesh had lost the biggest game of the Chennai Olympiad by simply sinking into despair in a lost position against Nodirbek Abdusattorov and needing to be informed that his time had run out.
Ian has been absolutely professional throughout the match, however, and with two and a half minutes on the clock executed a few more moves: 35…Rxh5 36.gxh5 Qxh5 37.d5+ Kg8 38.d6!
In the final position it’s actually mate-in-12, with a possible Re7 threatening mate on g7, but mainly clearing a path for the bishop to give a lethal check from d5.
There was a lot to recap!
So after four games in which Ian Nepomniachtchi seemed to be inching towards the title, one wild game has thrown everything wide open again. For Ding Liren the win is of course a huge boost, but when Ian dusts himself down from today’s drama he can reflect on the fact that with the scores level he still has every chance to win the match.
Advantage Ding Liren? | photo: Stev Bonhage, FIDE
If anything has proven tougher to handle than defeat in the match it's been victory, with Ding Liren twice and Ian once losing immediately after a win. Ian will have the white pieces on Thursday and will be looking to continue that pattern.
No-one said it was going to be easy... | photo: Stev Bonhage, FIDE
Then whatever happens, we’ll get a Game 14 on Saturday, after one last rest day on Friday. If the scores are still tied, we go to tiebreaks on Sunday, when the players start with four 25+10 games. Ding had no objections.
I’m quite happy to play 25 + 10 seconds with four rounds. I’ve played many tournaments with this time control.
If that failed to separate the players we’d have up to two pairs of 5+3 games, and then, not Armageddon, but a potentially limitless series of 3+2 games, played until the first win. By this stage, it would feel fitting if the match went all the way!
First, however, it’s that Game 13 on Thursday. Will it be lucky or unlucky for one of the players?
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