World Chess championship: Ding Liren stuns with miracle win over Ian Nepomniachtchi

The world chess championship match has undergone a twist as Ding Liren came back from a dire position to defeat Ian Nepomniachtchi.

Ding Liren has pulled off a miracle comeback in a seesawing chess match that ended in a cluster of blunders.

The Chinese number one employed the unambitious Colle System against his Russian opponent Ian Nepomniachtchi.

The game stayed equal until Liren made the first mistake — retreating his bishop instead of shifting his rook to the g-file.

The game between Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi. Picture: Chess.com

Nepomniachtchi played a number of consecutive engine-recommended moves, giving himself an advantage estimated to be more than two pawns.

But Nepomniachtchi missed a crucial — and complicated “super genius” line recommended by computer analysis, the only line that was winning.

And as the clock ticked down, Nepomniachtchi allowed his control of the position to lapse and the game slipped into a dynamic state.

Ding Liren made the first error by retreating his bishop. Picture: Chess.com

Ian Nepomniachtchi capitalised on Liren’s mistake by playing 19. Nh4. Picture: Chess.com

Both grandmasters started to make big blunders (in a technical sense mistakes as humans can’t yet play with the accuracy of computers).

The players both blitzed out moves and the analysis bar, which displays the best computer lines, swung around wildly.

Liren found himself with a winning position but failed to calculate that he could win a rook with his bishop, and rescue his knight in the process

Ian Nepomniachtchi missed a winning line and instead played the mistake 27. Rag8. Picture: Chess.com

“These guys are just fried at this point, they’ve stopped calculating”, Italian-American chess grandmaster Fabiano Caruana said, who is a member of the Chess.com commentary team.

He later criticised the players for playing as though it was a “Titled Tuesday” match (a weekly online speed chess contest involving the world’s best players).

Nepomniachtchi went from a position with his major pieces ominously lined up on a file aimed towards the white king, but inexplicably, following a series of inaccurate moves, his army was moved into a defensive position. Even worse he was left down a pawn.

“It is a disaster for Ian,” American grandmaster Robert Hess said.

The unexpected developments presented a huge opportunity for Liren, who was in a precarious position in the game and would have been left with the herculean task of winning the final two games on demand to push the match to a tie-break.

Hess described the game as “crazy” as the players continued to move almost “instantly”.

“These guys should have been taking more time. Ian dropped the ball.” Caruana said.

With the move 34. f4, Nepomniachtchi completely threw away the game.

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Ian Nepomniachtchi’s big blunder 34. f5. Picture: Chess.com

Ding Liren found the crucial move 35. Rxe6. Picture: Chess.com

Liren looked at Ian with a puzzled expression and took the pawn, capitalising on the enormous blunder.

The white queen’s position on the deadly a1-h8 diagonal meant that Nepomniachtchi’s king was doomed.

Nepomniachtchi could barely look at the board as he shook his head in “disgust” as he comprehended the enormity of his mistake.

“This is complete craziness,” Hess said.

“This is bizarre,” Indian international master Tania Sachdev said.

“He let the world championship crown slip out of his hands.”

It was a huge win for the Chinese number one and the match is again on a knife edge with the players tied on 6-6 as they race towards 7.5 and with only two classical games remaining to be played in Astana, Kazakhstan.