Pravin Thipsay writes: Fireworks of earlier games missing from Game 9, but no mistakes either

Pravin Thipsay writes: Though Ian Nepomniachtchi has a 5-4 lead in the 14-game match, Ding Liren has three games with White pieces left while Nepo has only two.

Though Ian Nepomniachtchi has a 5-4 lead in the 14-game match, Ding Liren has three games with White pieces left while Nepo has only two.

After almost six hours and 82 moves, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren agreed to a draw in Game 9. (Photo: FIDE/Stev Bonhage)

Written by: Pravin Thipsay

5 min readApr 22, 2023 07:09 AM IST First published on: Apr 21, 2023 at 10:58 PM IST

In most sports playing an all-out attack consumes more energy. In chess, it’s the opposite. Playing defensive can be tiresome because you must accurately calculate what you are defending against. A slight slip could be catastrophic.

Ding Liren is quite aware of this. With a point down, he knew he had to defend with Black pieces. He couldn’t afford to lose. And that’s exactly what he did in Game 9 of the World Chess Championships against Ian Nepomniachtchi being played at St Regis in Astana, Kazakhstan on Friday. (Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay has been analysing games of the World Chess Championship for The Indian Express. You can read his insightful analysis for Game 1, Game 2, Game 3, Game 4, Game 5, Game 6, Game 7 and Game 8.)

Never mind, it took close to six hours. It didn’t matter that it went up to 82 moves. Ding didn’t relent and managed to hold Nepo. Though he’s still trailing by a point with the score at 4-5, the Chinese GM will be relieved that in the remaining five games, he has to play with White pieces thrice while Nepo has just two.

The game on Friday turned out to be exactly the opposite of Game 8. Nepo opened with his favourite Ruy Lopez Spanish opening and Ding replied with the solid Berlin Defence, an option as early as on move 3.

Nepo chose a quiet setup allowing Ding to develop his King Bishop actively. On move 6, Ding decided to open up the centre, a move popularised by Hikaru Nakamura as well as Vladimir Kramnik, two players of opposite styles. While Nakamura is aggressive, Kramnik is more of a positional player. Nevertheless, it forms a solid base for the remainder of the game.

On move 11, Nepo moved his King Rook which turned out to be a new move. Ding seemed a bit confused between moves 11-19 and it seemed that Nepo already had an edge.

Like how Nepo was shrewd in the previous game, this time Ding rose to the occasion and boldly initiated counterplay on the Queen side at the cost of weakening the King side. It seemed a poor move initially, but the tact of the move of only realised later in the game.

Nepo could have maintained a slight edge by activating his King Bishop but he decided to chase Ding’s advanced Rook with the other Bishop.

Ding offered an exchange sacrifice on move 26, which was an interesting option in a passive position but Nepo decided to play it safe by not taking the exchange sacrifice. What it did was enable Ding to equalise easily by trading Queens on move 32.

The game could’ve been over on move 38 when Ding gave up a Pawn to simplify the position and force a theoretically drawn Knight ending but Nepo wanted to see if his extra Pawn would give him the edge. It didn’t because Ding put on his defending hat but eventually the game was drawn after 82 moves.

While it turned out to be the longest game in the match so far, the fireworks that we witnessed in earlier games seemed to be missing. Both players seemed to be playing much more cautiously though Nepo did try to take his chances whenever he saw an opportunity.

This game quite reminded me of the 7th Game of the 2014 World Championship Match between Magnus Carlsen and Viswanathan Anand wherein the former kept pressing his slight advantage till move 122 before agreeing to a draw.
With this draw, though Nepo is in the lead, I feel Ding has a slight advantage because he’s capable of winning with White while grinding out a draw with Black. And that’s going to be the biggest test for Nepo.

Saturday is a rest day and it’s going to be crucial because Ding plays with White on Sunday. I think it’s going to be Nepo’s turn to do the defending.

(Pravin Thipsay is an Indian Grandmaster and a recipient of the Arjuna Award.)

Moves (Game 9): 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 Nf6 4.d3 Bc5 5.c3 0–0 6.0–0 d5 7.Nbd2 dxe4 8.dxe4 a5 9.a4 Qe7 10.Qc2 Nb8 11.Re1!? [(A new move)]11…Rd8 12.h3 h6 13.Nf1 c6 14.Bc4 Na6 15.Ng3 Qc7 16.Ba2 b5 17.Qe2 Rb8 18.Nh4 Bf8 19.Qf3 bxa4! 20.Bxh6 Nc5 21.Ng6 Rxb2 22.Nxf8 Rxf8 23.Bg5 Nh7 24.Bc1 Rb5 25.Ba3 Re8 26.Bc4 Be6!? 27.Bxe6 Nxe6 28.Nf5 c5 29.Qe2 Rb3 30.Qc4 Qc6 31.Bc1 Nf6 32.Qxa4 Qxa4 33.Rxa4 Rxc3 34.Bb2 Rb3 35.Bxe5 Rb4 36.Rxa5 Rxe4 37.Rxe4 Nxe4 38.Ra4 Nd4!? 39.Bxd4 cxd4 40.Rxd4 g6 41.Ne3 Kg7 42.Rb4 Ng3 43.Rb7 Nf5 44.Ng4 Re7 45.Rb5 Re1+ 46.Kh2 Re2 47.Rb7 Nd6 48.Ra7 Kf8 49.Kg3 f5 50.Kf3 Re7 51.Ra8+ Re8 52.Rxe8+ Kxe8 53.Ne5 g5 54.h4 gxh4 55.Kf4 h3 56.gxh3 Ke7 57.Nc6+ Kf6 58.Nd4 Ne4 59.f3 Nf2 60.h4 Nd3+ 61.Kg3 Kg6 62.Ne6 Kf6 63.Nf4 Nb4 64.Kf2 Ke5 65.Ke3 Nc2+ 66.Kd2 Nd4 67.Nd3+ Kf6 68.Ke3 Nc2+ 69.Kf4 Nd4 70.Kg3 Ne2+ 71.Kf2 Nd4 72.Nf4 Ke5 73.Ne2 Ne6 74.Kg3 Kf6 75.Kg2 Kg7 76.Kf2 f4 77.Kg1 Kg6 78.Kg2 Kh6 79.Nc1 Kh5 80.Kh3 Nd4 81.Nd3 Nxf3 82.Nxf4+ Game drawn by mutual agreement.