Shalom Alekhine: Ding joins the chess greats

And Lo! Did we journey unto the City of Prague in the land of the Checks and thence to the Synagogue of the Spanish Hebrews, in their ancient ghetto of that habitation? Our purpose was to

harken unto the songs of the Jewish troubadours…va pensiero, Shalom Alechem …but amongst the time honoured strains of the inhabitants of that quarter, what song did our ears perceive?

Yeah verily, even in the aged Jewish ghetto of Prague city are to be heard the immortal words of the English Logodaedalus, Sir Tim Rice, whose contribution to chess culture and literature I

recently animadverted upon in this column.

In CHESS the Musical, Sir Tim puts to music (courtesy of the male half of ABBA) a roll of honour of the world chess champions. Of that illustrious list one of my favourites is Alexander

Alekhine, world champion from 1927 to 1935 and again from 1937-1946, when he died in Portugal, undefeated, still in possession of the world crown.

I bring up Alekhine specifically, because the recent championship match between Nepo and Ding reminds me strongly of the 1929 clash between Alekhine and Bogoljubov. In both cases, the two

protagonists had certainly earned their rights to the title match.  Alekhine by defeating Capablanca in 1927; Bogoljubov by virtue of his victories in such mega-tournaments as Pistyan 1922,

Carlsbad 1923, Moscow 1925 and Bad Kissingen 1928. As noted, the chief parallel is that, in both events, the 1929 precursor and the latest championship from 2023, the genuinely strongest

player was absent.

In 1929, it was Capablanca, while in 2023 the absentee was the truculent truant Carlsen. A further point of comparison was that the chess world breathed a huge welcoming sigh of relief at

the buccaneering style of the 1929 battles, when compared with the arid war of attrition waged by Capablanca and Alekhine (most games Queen’s Gambits, nearly all drawn). Similarly, the

uncompromising willingness to take risks by Nepomniachtchi and Ding was greeted most favourably by the global chess commentariat, when compared with the doubtless more accurate, but

undeniably tedious wastes of seemingly endless draws in previous Carlsen matches, the most serious offender in this sense being Carlsen v Caruana, London 2018, when all twelve main games

ended as draws!

Finally, the chess public at large welcomed the swashbuckling attitude of Alekhine and Bogoljubov, Nepomniachtchi and Ding, all of whom were prepared to hazard downright errors, but

combative ones, in their quest for victory.

I base my final comments on the 2023 world championship match on the official FIDÉ press release from my good friend and British Chess Magazine editor, Milan Dinic. It’s reassuring to see

that even FIDÉ now subscribes to the canonical view of who has and who has not been world champion. By openly conceding that the Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren is the 17th champion, FIDÉ

have confirmed that the true line of succession is Kasparov (13th champion), Kramnik (14), Anand (15), Carlsen (16) and now Ding Liren (17).

I still hold to my view that this match was packed with errors, even the decisive final game being salvageable until very near the end, but I did warm to Ding’s play at its best, as in game

four. In my opinion Ding has earned a genuine championship tilt with Carlsen, and it would be churlish of the ex-champion to duck such a challenge.

The atmosphere was charged with tension as Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi faced off at the luxurious St. Regis hotel, where they had been locked in a battle for three gruelling weeks. The

hotel was filled with spectators closely following the live commentary, eagerly anticipating the decisive moment.

The tiebreak consisted of four rapid games, with a time control of 25 minutes each, plus a 10-second increment per move. If the winner was undecided in the rapid, Blitz games would follow.

This was the final game of the rapid tiebreaks and, as it turned out, the final game of the match. Had it ended in a draw, the two would go into a Blitz showdown to determine who the next

world champion would be. But…

Again, another Ruy Lopez. Until move 12, the two followed the second game of the rapid, which ended in a draw.

Here Nepo opted for the main continuation 12.Nc3 instead of 12.Bd2 tested in the second game of the tiebreak.

In subsequent play, Ding was first to introduce the new move 13…Qe8 and comfortably equalized. Moreover, just a few moves later Ian made an inaccuracy and Black got a more promising position

with White having an oddly placed bishop on b1.

After Ding prematurely opened the centre Nepo could have solved all his problems by trading the knights but he played 20.Bd2.

The evaluation bar turned in Black’s favour immediately. However, instead of 20…Nf4 Ding opted to go for exchanges, dropping his advantage.

20…Nxc3 21.Bxc3 Bxc4 22.bxc4 Bd8, and the position became even again. Grandmaster Daniil Dubov was not happy with Ding’s plan here, saying that he did not need to give up his strong

e6-bishop and allow White breathing space.

Ding started to orchestrate an attack on the white king by pushing his pawn to f5 and aligning the queen and the bishop on the b8-h2 diagonal. Ian, in his turn, played g2-g3 and activated

his queen. The position was double-edged.

29…e4? This tempting pawn push is premature as it hands the initiative over to White.

Indeed, after 30.dxe4 Ne5 31.Qg2, the position opened for White, his b1-bishop now plays a more active role, but the structure is overall harmonious for Nepo. 

Ding Liren sacrificed a pawn for the initiative but didn’t seem to get much. To make things even worse for Ding, he was down on the clock now: Ding had six minutes while Nepo had more than

12.

After a series of exchanges that followed White had to decide where to move his rook. Only with counter-intuitive 35.Rd2! Ian could have retained some advantage, whereas after 35.Ra1 Rxf5 

Black regained a pawn.

The position was even, but Ding was down to three minutes. Nepo was pushing, looking for an edge, but Ding was holding on, having found a couple of the only moves along the way. It seemed

that we were heading for another draw.

Now the game took a wild twist: With a minute on the clock, Ding Liren decided to decline a threefold repetition (46…Kg8) leading to a draw and try to convert his extra pawn.

Ding’s determination almost immediately paid off as after 46…Rg6 47.Qf5?! (immediate 47. h4 was much better) c4 48.h4?? Qd3! Nepo found himself on the brink of defeat!

Ding took control over the b1-h7 diagonal and started gradually advancing the c-pawn.

Black is completely winning; he could have just pushed his pawn to c2. However, now he misplayed – 53…Rd6? In a critical moment, Ding exchanged rooks and dropped a considerable part of his

advantage.

After 54.Rxd6 Qxd6 55.Qe4+ Qg6 56.Qc4 Qb1+ 57.Kh2 a4? all Ian’s supporters cheered up as the position is close to even. 58.Bd4 a3.

 59.Qc7?? And Black is winning again! Ian missed a golden opportunity to make a draw with either 59.h5 (taking control over g6-square) Bf8 60.Qf7 or 59.Bxg7! Kxg7 60.Qc7+ with perpetual

check.

62…h5! After this final precise move by Ding, it was all over for Nepo. Black’s king is secure, while his pawns are unstoppable. Just six moves later, Ian Nepomniachtchi conceded defeat.

Nepomniachtchi could not hide his disappointment. Before he made the final move, he looked away from the broad – in anger and desperation. Some pieces which he had collected fell off the

table as he moved his hand shakily. He made a move, Ding responded. Nepo looked for a second and shook his opponent’s hand.

As Nepo nervously jumped out of his seat, Ding seemed shocked, face in hands, he was staring at the board, coming to terms with the fact that he is the new, 17th, world champion.

In the last press conference of the event, Ding said he wanted to dedicate the victory to his friends, mother and grandfather.

“I started to learn chess from four years old… I spent 26 years playing, analyzing, trying to improve my chess ability with many different ways, with different changing methods. With many

new ways of training.” He continues: “I think I did everything. Sometimes I thought I was addicted to chess, because sometimes without tournaments, I was not so happy. Sometimes I struggled

to find other hobbies to make me happy. This match reflects the deepness of my soul,” said the new World Champion.

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