Ian Nepomniachtchi approached his second match for the world championship as a favorite. The Russian grandmaster, who won the Candidates’ Tournament in 2022 without much difficulty, is preparing to take revenge on the legendary Norwegian Magnus Carlsen.
However, the Scandinavian chess player voluntarily relinquished the title of champion after finding no motivation to defend the title of chess king for the fifth consecutive year.
Chinese chess player Ding Liren, who came second to compete for the title of strongest in the tournament, competed with Yang.
Initially, he was not supposed to participate at all, but it was Ding Liren who took the eighth after the six-month disqualification of another Russian grandmaster, Sergey Karyakin, awarded by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) in March 2022. Ticket to Madrid.
From the very beginning, the Chinese faced tremendous pressure from the championship game. In the three-week chess marathon in classical chess, the Asian athlete (with Nepomniachtchi’s help) was able to level the score, falling three times behind.
Playing with black pieces in yesterday’s match, Jan had a chance to finish the job and take the win, but he did not dare to attack and played more reliably in defense, achieved the draw and changed the game. match the format with a tie-break.
In both quick and blitz chess, in the opinion of many analysts and fans, Nepomniachtchi would be preferable to his opponent. The tie-break started with four games with a time control of 25 minutes + 10 seconds per move. Throughout each of the four games, the grandmasters demonstrated a strong level of play and avoided blunders or overlooks that could lead to someone’s victory.
The last, fourth game of speed chess continued for a long time according to the same scenario. Until move 47, a draw seemed inevitable and the opponents were given a blitz showdown. But then Yang made a careless pawn move on h4, and Ding Liren soon managed to turn it into a fatal mistake.
Instantly, the valuation of positions according to the computer version dropped to approximately -3.5, which is a huge advantage in matches between the world’s strongest grandmasters.
Six minutes after move 48, Yang realized his opponent’s superiority and surrendered. Ding Liren made super accurate and mathematically justified moves, a little more collected and a little bit luckier at the right time. After the end of the game, the Chinese shook hands twice with Nepomniachtchi and then continued to sit at the table with his face in his hands.
Sergei Smagin, vice-president of the Russian Chess Federation (RCF), said in an interview with a socialbites.ca correspondent that Nepomniachtchi cannot make decisions without nerves at the key moment of the game.
“At the decisive moment, when the price of the move is at the limit, Yang makes certain mistakes. So he was in the match against Carlsen, and he was today. Yang does not feel good or underestimates the critical moments. Quickly, he had many chances to turn the game in his favor. At high voltage cannot play.
There was no sign of defeat in the last match, his position was better. At some point, he started playing with the eye or already thought it was going to be a draw. But Liren did not relax.
The Chinese chess player has a very high average level of moves. Yang made two mistakes that Liren took advantage of. Liren played cleaner. She deservedly became the world champion, ”Smagin told socialbites.ca.
Ding Liren, 30, became the first Chinese and 17th world chess champion overall. It is curious that compatriot Ju Wenjun, who has held the title of the strongest female chess player on the planet since 2018, has the women’s chess crown.
Russia has been without a world chess champion for 17 years. The reigning Russian world champion was Vladimir Kramnik, who held the strongest title from 2000 (according to Professional Chess Association PCA) to 2007 after winning the unification duel against Bulgarian Veselin Topalov.
In the world championship matches among women, the Russian woman last won in 2008 – Alexandra Kosteniuk became the 12th world chess champion, defeating the Chinese woman Hou Yifan.