Pravin Thipsay writes: In Game 12, Ding Liren was the lucky winner in contest of jangling nerves

Pravin Thipsay writes: Ding Liren didn’t really do anything special. He won the game without a single great move. This puts even more pressure on Ian Nepomniachtchi now.

Game 12 of the 2023 World Chess Championship between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren ended with the Chinese GM drawing level with the Russian at 6-6.

Ian Nepomniachtchi (right) reacts after realising he's about to lose Game 12 of the 2023 World Chess Championship to Ding Liren. (Photo: FIDE/Stev Bonhage)

Written by: Pravin Thipsay

5 min readApr 26, 2023 11:17 PM IST First published on: Apr 26, 2023 at 11:17 PM IST

Classical Chess is a slow game. At the World Chess Championship, the pressure builds each game. Pressure causes nervousness and makes even the best to make absurd mistakes. Game 12 between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren was one such game.

Both players made a myriad of mistakes but Ding turned out to be the winner of the game of fluctuating fortunes on Wednesday at the St Regis in Astana, Kazakhstan. The victory allowed Ding to equalise the match at 6-6 and with two games to go, it’s really turning out to be a thriller. (Grandmaster Pravin Thipsay has been analysing games of the World Chess Championship for The Indian Express. You can read his analysis of Game 11, Game 10, Game 9, Game 8, Game 7, Game 6, Game 5, Game 4, Game 3, Game 2, and Game 1.)

Game 12 though, was anything but a thriller.

Nepo was leading the Championship match comfortably before Wednesday. The Russian was in full control of the tie and it was Ding who was under pressure to get a win. All Nepo had to do was grind out three draws to be crowned World Champion. He didn’t have to do anything fancy. But yes, he also didn’t have to make any big mistakes.

Pressure sometimes gets to you. And this is the biggest match of them all, with the eyes of the world on them. When you play 11 games that last an average of four hours each, there are chances that one of the players shows signs of nervousness. On Wednesday though, it seemed like both of them were a bundle of nerves, making one mistake after the other until Nepo made a really bad one from where Ding just couldn’t lose.

Ding chose to start the game with d2-d4, instead of repeating the English opening which didn’t do any good to him in Game 10. This time, he tried to play the reverse Carlsbad Pawn Structure again but not with the Queen Bishop developed as in Game 6.

Nepo’s opening play was frankly, quite difficult to understand. He developed his Queen Bishop to a very awkward square as early on as move 6, a move that had never been played before.

Then shockingly, on move 8, he shifted the same Bishop to a better square. He could’ve placed it there on the sixth move itself! While that was more of a waste of a move than a mistake as such, it set the tone for absurd play in the Game.

Being down a game, it was expected that Ding will attack in Game 12, especially since he was playing with White pieces. He’s known to like complex game structures and that was something chess buffs were anticipating. Imagine the disappointment when he made major strategic inaccuracies on moves 11 & 12, opening up a file against his own King.

Again on 19, Ding played a rash move. It would’ve been a good move if the Queens weren’t on the board but there was no way it would work in the middle game. He was really trying to complicate the game. It seems that in a game of unclear complications, he has the advantage. This way of playing is more subjective. Rather than build a strategic path on the board, he was enticing Nepo to play moves that were not part of his strategy.

But Nepo kept it simple. After launching an attack by doubling his Rooks in the file, he systematically built an attack against Ding’s King and was already in a winning position.

Then came a strange phase in the game when both the players started playing mediocre, club-level moves. Nepo missed a win on moves 26, 28 and 29 and Ding missed a win on move 28.

The players reached a roughly equal position by move 30 but Nepo moved his Queen back and forth aimlessly. The worst blunder came on move 34 when Nepo gave up his centre Pawn for no reason, inviting Ding’s Pieces to invade. Ding made no mistake thereafter and clinched the issue in 38 moves. It was a very tragic end for Nepo whose position was good throughout the game.

Ding didn’t really do anything special. He won the game without a single great move. This puts even more pressure on Nepo now.

He plays with White on Thursday and will have to go all out to win the match. He can’t go with a mentality that he’ll make a draw as Ding plays the last game with White.

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

Moves (Game 12): 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5 3.e3 c5 4.Nbd2 cxd4 5.exd4 Qc7 6.c3 Bd7 7.Bd3 Nc6 8.0–0 Bg4 9.Re1 e6 10.Nf1 Bd6 11.Bg5?! 0–0 12.Bxf6?! gxf6 13.Ng3 f5 14.h3 Bxf3 15.Qxf3 Ne7 16.Nh5 Kh8 17.g4!? Rg8 18.Kh1 Ng6 19.Bc2? Nh4 20.Qe3 Rg6! 21.Rg1 f4! 22.Qd3 Qe7 23.Rae1 Qg5! 24.c4 dxc4 25.Qc3 b5 26.a4 b4! 27.Qxc4 Rag8 28.Qc6 Bb8?? 29.Qb7?? Rh6? 30.Be4 Rf8?! 31.Qxb4 Qd8 32.Qc3 Ng6 33.Bg2 Qh4?! 34.Re2 f5?? 35.Rxe6 Rxh5 36.gxh5 Qxh5 37.d5+ Kg8 38.d6 Black resigned.