New Delhi: World Championship match witnessed another bounce back and this time by Ian Nepomniachtchi who scored a crushing victory against Ding Liren in game 5. A 48-move game was a long-long tussle as Ding tried to defend but a few mistakes cost him the game and the pressure again shifted. The 14-game match stands at 3-2 in favour of the Russian grandmaster.
It was another Ruy Lopez: Morphy’s Defence for Nepo with the white pieces. The players blitzed out the opening and Nepo came up with novelty on move 12 with Bg5 as he deviated from the game between Alireza Firouzja and Anish Giri. The players exchanged rooks on the a-file and Nepo was the one with a comfortable position out of the opening.
Here’s how @lachesisq took a 3-2 lead with an exciting win in game 5. #NepoDing pic.twitter.com/5V1kHPo74C
— Chess.com (@chesscom) April 15, 2023
According to GM Anish Giri, who was commentating on the game, exchanging the light-square bishops on move 21 was one of the turning points in the game and favoured white. Ding’s move 26…Qc5 was an inaccuracy as he put his queen in front of the dark-square bishop and allowed Nepo’s queen to unleash an attack, assisted by the knight and pawn on h5.
However, Nepo went for 27.Qg4 while Qf3 was much more accurate with the idea of pushing the e-pawn and having his knight to attack the black king. While Ding had a chance to make a comeback and hold it to a draw, he allowed 31.Qe4 and found a great resource with 32.Re2 and 33.g4. After a couple of slightly inaccurate moves by Ding, Nepo pushed his pawn to g5 and hxg5 proved to be a blunder by Ding as it offered an attacking position to the white rook and knight. He should have gone for something like Qd7 (or Qc8, which is an inaccuracy) and should have allowed gxh6 to have a better, if not a great position.
hxg5 is a blunder. After Rg4 White’s position is evaluated as +5! #NepoDing pic.twitter.com/3PYD08qBFv
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) April 15, 2023
The Chinese grandmaster went deep into time trouble with a terrible position on board and the game then went downhill for him as even exchanging the queens could not help. He tried his last chance with 46…Re2 but Nepo was on point to score the win.
After the game, Ding accepted that he played well in the opening but landed in an ‘unpleasant’ position. Ian noted that the position was part of his preparation but Ding played sensible moves in the opening.
