The eleventh round of the World Chess Championship shows how demanding a tournament of this magnitude is. The pressure of being the first holder of the title after the resignation of Magnus Carlsen, the support of two great countries like Russia and China behind and the requirement to measure yourself fourteen times against the same opponent are more than enough ingredients to justify a recipe as insipid as today’s.
Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren drew in the dullest game of the entire matchup. Some tables that, according to the subsequent analysis of both contenders in the press conference, do not dissatisfy anyone. “I can’t say that I’m completely satisfied with the game, but the tables make me closer to the final victory”, he admitted nepowho did not try to risk to achieve a victory that practically sentenced the event.
The Spanish Opening returned to the scene for the fourth time in the six games that the Russian Grandmaster has played with White. This time Ding used his most usual lines again and they ended up reaching a position that was more than familiar to both of them. So much so that they themselves, in the 2020 Candidates Tournament, had played exactly the same game.
Liren, with the memory of everything he suffered to get half a point in the Yekaterinburg duel in mind, used another much healthier and more concrete option. Even so, Nepomniachtchi had everything ready and got the minimal advantage expected from this type of opening. “There is a slight pressure for white”he pointed out before questioning his decision to change all the pieces, precipitating an ending where only a tie was an option.
All material except one rook per side and a few pawns disappeared from the board in fifteen consecutive moves. The tables, by triple repetition, only took a few more minutes to arrive. 39 plays and less than two hours to recharge the deposit for the last three rounds and, who knows, if also some hypothetical tiebreakers.
Ding dreams of reaching that situation, which promises a lot of fighting after the rest day. “I think today was early to play Sicilian or lines like that because there are still three games left. In the Candidates Tournament I won in the last, so anything can still happen,” the Chinese player said hopefully. However, since some of his preparations were leaked, it seems that his engine is seized, because has not been able to pose the slightest danger to Nepo.
The World Cup will resume on the 26th with the twelfth round. Ding, who has already shown himself capable of coming up with surprising and damaging ideas, will take the white pieces.. It wouldn’t be the first time in recent history that the third to last game became decisive, as Carlsen managed to tie his 2016 clash (to twelve games) against Karjakin in a fateful tenth game. To this precedent and to the imagination of Rapport he climbs to tie a matches which is increasingly pointing towards Russia.