Who is going to be our new Word Champion? Nepomniachtchi vs Ding

Because of Carlsen’s absence, Ian Nepomniachtchi is facing No.3 Liren Ding, the highest-rated Chinese player in history. The 2023 FIDE World Championship Match is being played in Astana, Kazakhstan from April 9 and can go on until April 30. They will play 14 games and the first who reaches 7,5 points will become our new World Champion.

Carlsen’s decision

It is strange not to hear Magnus Carlsen’s name while mentioning World Champion. What was the reason behind his decision to not compete for the World Champion title?

In July 2022, Magnus Carlsen announced his decision not to defend his title against Ian Nepomniachtchi. “I’ve spoken to people in my team, I’ve spoken to FIDE, I spoke to Ian as well. The conclusion is very simple: I’m not motivated to play another match,” said the current World Champion. “I don’t have a lot to gain. I don’t particularly like it, and although I’m sure a match would be interesting for historical reasons, I don’t have any inclinations to play and I will simply not play the match.” Magnus also expressed his dissatisfaction with the system that World Championships are played.

The match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Liren Ding

The time control is 120 minutes for 40 moves, plus 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes till the end of the game. After the 60th move, a 30-second increment will be added to each player’s clock for each move until the end of the game.

If the match finishes with a tie after 14 games, a playoff will be concluded to determine the winner. The playoffs will comprise four 25-minute games with a 10-second increment from move one. If the result remains a tie, they will play two blitz games with a time control of 5 minutes + 3 seconds. If the winner is not determined, a single 3+2 game will be played until one player wins.

Choosing the color

During the ceremony, selecting the color was a creative idea. One player had to name a color and if the robotic arm picked up the piece with the same color, that player moved to the second stage, where the robot then decided if that player would be white or black in the first round.

As Ian Nepomniachtchi is currently ranked ahead of Ding Liren, he went first. Nepomniachtchi walked over, said “white”, and then pressed a button on the computer. Fortunately for him, the robot had also selected the same color, moving him to advance to the next stage.

In the next stage, Nepomniachtchi had to press the button once more, and it was the robot’s turn to determine the color of Ian’s pieces in game 1. Despite robots may be better than humans in almost everything, they’re still not perfect and have some limitations, particularly with precise movements. It took the robot three times to choose a piece, as it did not pick up any pieces on the first try.

On the second try, the robot picked up two pieces – one white and one black. On the last try – it picked up one piece – white, so Nepomniachtchi was lucky again.

Game 1

The first game fascinated many players as Ian Nepomniachtchi played 7. Re1 which surprised the commentators, but also the World Champion. Magnus wrote on his Twitter: “Did we check this for 2016 or 2021? I had no idea 7. Re1 existed.”

Later Nepomniachtchi got a big advantage, but soon let it slip away and the game ended in a draw. Liren in the post-game press conference openly and honestly said that he had some difficulties focusing on chess because of the pressure and emotions of the match.

So who are you rooting for? Let us know in the comments and stay tuned for more!

Author

STELLA SÁŇKOVÁ