World Chess Championship: The stakes for Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren without Carlsen

Only one champion is missing and everything is depopulated... Not sure, because after the abandonment of the title by the Norwegian Magnus Carlsen, indisputable world No. 1 for a decade now, it is his dolphins the Russian, - but who plays under the apolitical banner of FIDE-, Ian Nepomniachtchi (No. 2 in the Elo ranking) and the Chinese Ding Liren (No. 3) who have been playing a match in 14 classic games since April 9 in Astana, Kazakhstan.

This confrontation, which on paper seems less interesting due to the absence of the "Thor of chess", could still have a symbolic value in the event of victory of the Chinese grandmaster.

Because it is a "geopolitical" constant in the history of the game since the Renaissance, the masters of the 64 squares are almost always representatives of the dominant nations: the Italians and the Spaniards in the 16th and 17th centuries (Greco the Calabrian, Paolo Boï , Ruy Lopez de Segura), the French in the 18th century (Legal, Philidor), the English and the Germans in the 18th century (Staunton, Lasker), and finally the Russians and Americans in the 20th century (Alekhine, Tal, Spassky, Kasparov, Fischer) .

Read alsoMagnus Carlsen renounces to play the next world chess championship

From a purely chess point of view, the chances of the two protagonists Ian Nepomniachtchi, 32, and Ding Liren, 30, are roughly equal.

Their respective style is comparable, they both like to take the initiative by trying laboratory variants analyzed with the best current software.

The specialists, however, give a small advantage to the one his admirers affectionately call “Nepo”.

Trained by the masters of the Soviet school, the latter benefited during his childhood and adolescence from the positional advice distilled by Evgueny Bareïev, a former coach of ex-world champion Vladimir Kramnik.

On the other hand, Ding Liren is the first Chinese grandmaster to play a world championship match.

These exhausting mano à mano obey specific laws.

They require ironclad mental strength.

For almost a month, the two swordsmen of the 64 squares will have to concoct for each game theoretical novelties that are as accurate as they are surprising.

A battery of seconders supports them in this herculean task which consists in brewing thousands of lines of play. We know, for example, that the French grandmaster Laurent Fressinet contributed to the domination of Magnus Carlsen during the matches for the title that he won from 2013 to 2021.

Advantage to Russian

Ian Nepomniachtch

In this area of ​​specific preparation, scientific one would dare to write, the Russian has an advantage.

On the strength of his unfortunate experience against Carlsen in 2021, “Nepo” now knows how to prepare and above all how to react to the theoretical traps that Ding Liren will not fail to set for him.

His victory in the second game played on April 10 shows that in this initial phase the champion of the Middle Kingdom has not yet found the right way to impose his style and his vision of chess.

His neurons may be trembling a little because the stakes are high: to become the first Chinese world champion in history and in the process garnered 1.2 million dollars.

Here is the quick analysis of the 2nd game, won with the black pieces by "Nepo"

Ding Liren - Ian Nepomniachtchi, in Astana on April 10, Lady's Gambit accepted by inversion

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 4.h3!?

, A "

" by Ding Liren that will last a long time...

Ding Liren just played 4.h3!?

in an attempt to take Russian off the beaten track.

This one will not let himself be destabilized and will fall back on his feet by returning by reversing blows in a queen's gambit.

Le Figaro

dxc4 5.e3 c5 6.Bxc4 a6 7.0–0 Nc6 8.Nc3 b5 9.Bd3 Bb7 10.a4 b4 11.Ne4 Na5 12.Nxf6+?!,

Grandmaster Tkachiev who was analyzing live on Twich thinks this exchange is the result of a lack of "

".

Better was 12.Nxc5 Bxc5 13.dxc5 Be4, etc.