FIDE World Chess Championship: Game 13 ends in draw, match stands equal with last round to go

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FIDE World Chess Championship: Game 13 ends in draw, match stands equal with last round to go

Ding had an advantage out of the opening but the tables turned and it was Ian pushing in the middle game.

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April 27, 2023 18:44 IST
FIDE World Chess Championship: Game 13 ends in draw, match stands equal with last round to go
FIDE World Chess Championship: Game 13 ends in draw, match stands equal with last round to go

New Delhi: Game 13 of the FIDE World Chess Championship between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren ended in a draw after a threefold repetition on move 40. Ding had an advantage out of the opening but the tables turned and it was Ian pushing in the middle game. Like other games in the match, game 13 was also a see-saw and with one classical game left to play, the score stands 6.5-each.

While they agreed to a draw, both of them had chances to choose a different move and push further as white could target the hanging pawn on e4 while black could have played Ke6 to bring King into the game. Both of them analysed it to be equal and decided to end the game with a repetition.

Nepomniachtchi playing with the white pieces, went for a Ruy Lopez again and the match witnessed another Anti-Marshall kind of System with a Closed Ruy Lopez: Martinez Variation. Ian decided to strike in the centre with 14.d4 and as they exchanged the pawns and a pair of knights, white was left with an undefended e4 pawn. Nepo went to defend his pawn with 18.f3, which proved to be a mistake as it gives a chance for black to strike with d5 and with the queen and a rook placed in central files, black was the one dictating the game.

However, Ding lost his edge soon with 21…Re5, looking for a bit ambitious rook swing and potentially cutting out his own queen from entering the attack later on in the game. When Nepo went for 23.Ne2, Ding had a chance to gain an advantage with an engine line not easy to find over the board. The computer suggests going Qe8, followed by 24.Re1 Rd8 25.Nd4 Bb4 26.Rf1 f5 27.Nxf5 Nc3 28.Qc2 and this leads to an exchange of bishops with black ending up a piece.

Ding instead went 23…Qe7 and missed 24.Qd4 by Nepo. On move 25, Ding was attacking white’s light square bishop with f5 while his rook was attacked by Bg3, so he decided to give up his rook in exchange for a bishop and a pawn.

While the position was equal after the queen exchange on move 27, Ding allowed Nepo to enter the seventh rank with his rook and after the rook exchange, white was having a better endgame being exchange up. However, both players could not find better continuations and agreed to a draw by repetition.

In the press conference, Ian acknowleged that he did not play ‘brilliant chess’ but he tried. He could not evaluate the endgame to be clearly better for white. On the other hand, Liren knew he had advantage in the middle but found it difficult to prove it over the board.

The last game in the World Championship will be played on April 29, which is after a rest day. Ding Liren will have the white pieces as he will face Ian Nepomniachtchi for one last time in the classical time format in the match.

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