FIDE World Chess Championship: Game 10 witnesses first solid draw of match, Nepo leads 5.5-4.5

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FIDE World Chess Championship: Game 10 witnesses first solid draw of match, Nepo leads 5.5-4.5

With no mistakes by both sides, Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi ended game 10 in a 45-move draw where all that was left on the board were the two kings.

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April 23, 2023 18:05 IST
FIDE World Chess Championship: Game 10 witnesses first solid draw of match, Nepo leads 5.5-4.5
FIDE World Chess Championship: Game 10 witnesses first solid draw of match, Nepo leads 5.5-4.5

New Delhi: After a lot of drama till game 9, FIDE World Chess Championship witnesses the first game, which can be said to be a calm draw. With no mistakes by both sides, Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi ended game 10 in a 45-move draw where all that was left on the board were the two kings.

Ding opened with c4 with the white pieces and they played a Four Knights-Nimzowitsch Variation of the English opening. There was a lot of blitzing of the moves, even in the middle game, while the players took some time in the endgame to make a few decisions and soon went for a draw.

The players exchanged both pairs of knights and Ian went Kf8 on move 10, giving up his right to castle, but it is all known theory. Ding got a comfortable position out of the opening with his queen placed on g3 and dark square bishop on f4 with both sides having pawns on e5 and d6, eyeing at each other.

Nepo tried to gain some space and activity on the king-side with h5…h4…g5 and they blitzed out the exchange of central pawns, dark square bishops and the queens to enter an equal endgame with white being a pawn up, but with the doubled pawns on the c-file.

While the Chinese grandmaster had some chances to play a little longer and grind, Ian went for doubling rooks on c-file and used the tactic to exchange a pair of rooks and the light square bishops, after which it was a dead draw. Both the players played precisely and soon exchanged all the material on the board to call it a day.

With this solid draw, the match stands at 5.5-4.5 in favour of the Russian grandmaster and there are four more games to go. While Ding won game 4 with the English opening, this could be said a missed chance to equalise the match with the white pieces.

After the game, Ding said that Nepo defended well and did not give him the chances.

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