Ding Liren found a beautiful finish in Game 6 to wrap up his 2nd win of the 2023 FIDE World Championship and level the scores at 3:3 going into Monday’s rest day. Ian Nepomniachtchi lamented "one of my worst games ever" as he reacted badly to Ding's London System, a chess opening that starred on its first ever outing in a World Championship match.
Ding Liren bounces back again | photo: Stev Bonhage
Replay the day’s live commentary on Game 6 of the FIDE World Championship from Anish Giri and David Howell.
Replay Game 6 of the Ding-Nepomniachtchi match with computer analysis
We’ve now seen an incredible three decisive games in a row, and four in the first six games of the 2023 FIDE World Championship match.
Although Ding Liren suffered a painful loss in Game 5 to fall behind for the second time in the match, he seemed unbroken in the post-game press conference, instead lamenting how one rushed decision had sealed his fate. He would reveal after Game 6 that he gained a boost from the fact that Anish Giri was predicting a comeback for him even before Game 5 was lost.
Ding had the white pieces on Sunday, and would later claim he left the decision on what to play to the very last moment.
As in Game 2, he opened with 1.d4, but when he met 1…Nf6 with 2.Nf3 it was clear there would be no repeat of the 4.h3!? surprise he’d sprung in that game. Then after 2…d5 we got 3.Bf4, the much maligned London System, that had never been seen before in a World Championship match.
Ding explained his reasoning in the post-game press conference:
Today I was struggling to find which opening to play just before the start of the game. I had many choices, and in the end I decided to play this London System, because I just wanted to play something I was more familiar with. I tried to stay calm after yesterday’s tough loss, and this opening I think suits my style pretty well. It’s a kind of reversed Carlsbad pawn structure, as in the third game, so I can say it went very well.
It was Game 3, where Ding had Black, that he’d first begun to look confident again, as he handled the position better and came close to posing real problems for Nepo.
The London isn’t all roses, however, with Giri pointing out that one issue is the number of different ways Black has of playing. Ding made the surprising admission that 6…Bf5 already left him out of his opening preparation.
“I just tried to keep the position not so forced and keep some possibility to play for a win”, he explained, and in fact, whether consciously or not, he navigated towards a position in which Gata Kamsky, the first top player to popularise the opening, had scored heavily.
Nevertheless, Black seemed to have done nothing badly wrong until a couple of moves that recalled Ding’s unfortunate 19…Bd8!? 20.Nf1 Ne7!? manoeuvre the day before. This time it was Nepo’s turn to earn Giri’s opprobrium with 13…a6!? 14.Bf1 Nd7?!
Sure enough, Ding didn’t delay long in playing 15.Nxd7! Qxd7 16.a5! and going on to demonstrate a fine understanding of the nuances of the ensuing position. Soon Anish was even declaring a win for White.
His quote continued:
I think this is going to be a good day for Ding. The position is very easy to play, it’s completely risk-free and it is totally fitting Ding’s style, and Ian definitely doesn’t like what he is going to be seeing in this game. So very optimistic for Ding already.
That would prove prophetic, though as almost always in modern chess, there were some twists and turns along the road.
Nepomniachtchi avoided exchanging queens into an unpleasant endgame and instead went for an active plan with an e-pawn push. Objectively it was a mistake, but in practice it did achieve the goal of muddying the waters.
Here the best option for White was in fact 23.b4!, shoring up the c5-knight and simply welcoming Black to push the pawn to e4. That advance would achieve little and instead give White a target for a later f3.
Instead Ding went for 23.Rb3!?, which was also strong, but led to a wild position after 23…Nxa5 24.Rxe5. Ding commented:
I spent most of my time after 22…e5 23.Rb3. This was not according to my plan. Maybe I should have played 23.b4 instead of Rb3 as before that the position was nearly one-sided, I was the one who was pressing and he didn’t have much counterplay, but after 23…Nxa5 suddenly he had a lot of counterplay.
A key position would later arise after 27.h5!?, a thematic move that recalled Nepo’s win the day before.
After the game, a despondent Ian Nepomniachtchi felt he’d missed a chance here. He summed up the day:
Among all the other openings of course I expected the London in one of the games, so it happened, but I guess I played one of my worst games ever. Nearly every move was bad, and even then I get the second chance out of this awful position. I think it was pretty much equal at some point, if I would play 27…Bd3 instead of 27…Bc2, even that was unfortunate, so a bad day.
Ian’s intuition was wrong, however, since 27…Bd3 was likely not “holdable”, as he assumed, but worse than the move he played in the game, due to 28.b4!, exploiting the fact Black can’t take en passant without losing the bishop.
There was a very good try, however, with 27…Rxe5! 28.dxe5 and the surprising 28…Qd8!
The basic justification is that 29.hxg6? Qd1+! 30.Kh2 Qh5+ is an immediate draw by perpetual check. Ian correctly pointed out, “it’s not like checkers, you’re not forced to capture”, but after White’s best move 29.Qf3! you can play 29…Qd2! and now to try and get an advantage Ding would have to go for the heavy piece endgame after 30.hxg6 Qe1+ 31.Kh2 Qxe5+ 32.g3 Qxc5 — a preferable outcome for Black to what happened in the game.
It's hard to criticise a player for missing a trick like 28…Qd8, but questions can be asked of Ian playing 28…Bc2 in just five minutes when he had an hour on the clock. Pressuring your opponent with fast play can be a powerful weapon, but sometimes it comes at a cost. Giri commented:
This is a classic case of very bad time management, and this is nothing new. This is the flip side of Ian's strength. In a bad position, it becomes a weakness.
After that brief straying from the computer path, Ding went on to find some fine moves, including 29.Nd6!
29…Qxd6?? 30.Rxe8+ Rxe8 31.Qxd6 would be unfortunate, but after 29…Rxe5 30.Qxe5 Qxb2 Ding revealed he hadn’t had everything worked out in advance.
In answer to a question by Irina Krush he said he was initially looking at a line that showed how crisply he was calculating: 31.Nxc4!? Qc1+ 32.Kh2 Bd3 33.Qe3 Qd1 34.Ne5 Qxh5+ 35.Qh3.
“This endgame is not so easy to win,” was Ding’s accurate assessment, but he found something else.
I was very happy to find Ra5 — it might be the critical move. In general, I feel I was in very good shape during the whole game and I was not so influenced by yesterday’s loss.
Ding Liren had a lot to be proud of | photo: Anna Shtourman, FIDE
31.Ra5! relied on 31…Qxc3? being hit by 32.Ne8!, when Black would have to give up the exchange on e8 to stop checkmate on g7.
Once again, however, chess is tough, and it seems that after 31…Kh7! and the very natural 32.Rc5!? (32.Qe1! was the modest winning line) Ian had his last chance.
Ian had to go for 32…Qxc3! and, it turns out, Ding has no way to get at the black king despite the f7-pawn falling. At this point even Anish had stopped believing in a win for White.
It was only a momentary wobble, however, since 32…Qc1+?! 33.Kh2 f6 34.Qg3 left Ding right back in control. The Chinese star switched into God mode, and was no longer offering any glimmers of hope in the form of endgames.
Ding had correctly assessed that the passed a-pawn was no threat, and when he made the time control the outcome of the game was in no doubt. Ian was getting a taste of his own medicine from the day before.
I think I just played really poorly and in some way it was a mirror from yesterday’s game. The same material, and the same patterns, but I guess the tension is high so sometimes you can’t perform at your best.
Ding would put a flourish of his own on the game, however, since he devoted 19 minutes of his newly-added time to find a hidden idea that will see the game go down as a classic.
41.d5! is a move with great disguise, since it looks as though White has just decided that pushing the passed pawn is the path to victory. Ian took just a couple of minutes to push his own pawn with 41…a2, and suddenly White would have faced real difficulties winning the game, if not for the wonderful move Ding had foreseen, 42.Qc7!
There’s no longer any escape, with Ian quickly playing 42…Kh7 and asking Ding to demonstrate the only win in the position. He did, with 43.Ng6 Rg8 44.Qf7! and there could no longer be any mistaking Ding’s evil intentions.
Ian thought for a while, presumably about whether or not to play on and show the idea on the board, but in the end he simply resigned with a smile.
The beautiful finish would have been e.g. 44…Qxc3 45.Qxg8+! Kxg8 46.Ra8+ Qc8 47.Rxc8+ Kf7 48.Rf8#
And that’s why the pawn went to d5 on move 41!
Ding Liren leaves the stage after a 2nd win in Astana | photo: Stev Bonhage, FIDE
For more on the game you can once again check out some recaps.
Why was it suddenly raining decisive games in Astana? Ian Nepomniachtchi, understandably, wasn’t feeling in the mood to answer, replying simply, “Ask me the question another day”.
Ding Liren, however, came up with a remarkable answer.
I guess the reason is maybe we are not that professional as Magnus!
Asked the same question again a minute later (World Chess Championship press conferences have their own logic), he ventured another response that, “maybe there are not so many computer lines happening during the opening phase”.
In any case, the 14-game World Championship match has now become an 8-game sprint, with the scores locked at 3:3. Once again it feels as though the momentum has swung to Ding, but so far neither player has demonstrated the ability to wield not just the sword but the shield.
Can Nepomniachtchi take the lead for a 3rd time on Tuesday? | photo: Anna Shtourman, FIDE
Monday is a rest day, while on Tuesday Ian Nepomniachtchi will have the white pieces. The curiosity this time, however, is that Wednesday will also be a rest day, so that Game 7, the midpoint of the match, stands alone. Will we get a 4th decisive game in a row? And if we do, who will win it?
Don’t miss all the action from 15:00 local time (5am ET, 11:00 CEST, 2:30pm IST)!
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