World championship match in Astana

[Christopher Kreuzer]

I disagree. A Ding-Carlsen match would be exciting. But Ding needs to finish off this match first. Nepo needs to recover in time for tomorrow's game. I am going to go out on a limb and predict Ding will win tomorrow and Saturday as well. We are getting value for money!

[Graham Borrowdale]

Well, the elephant chose to leave the room. You can only play who is sat opposite you.
I think it is fair to say that Nepo has had his share of luck in this match as well.
I don’t think the pendulum has necessarily swung back in Ding’s favour. I think the winner will be the player whose nerves hold, and it could well go to the rapid tie-breaks.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Carlsen is fallible, and has certainly failed to win won games himself in the past.

Yes of course he would be favourite against either of these, but I really wouldn't overstate it.

[Mick Norris]

I disagree. A Ding-Carlsen match would be exciting. But Ding needs to finish off this match first. Nepo needs to recover in time for tomorrow's game. I am going to go out on a limb and predict Ding will win tomorrow and Saturday as well. We are getting value for money!

A 14th game for the first time since Brissago 2004 I believe, so certainly value for money (especially for those of us not paying anything )

[Nick Ivell]

Don't get me wrong; I've enjoyed the match. I'm just not sure the standard of play has been high.

[Matt Mackenzie]

Maybe we have been spoiled a bit in that regard recently, though of course it also helps explains the greater propensity for draws.

For instance, the 2006 Kramnik-Topalov affair was in many ways a memorable and iconic match - but error-free it certainly wasn't.

[Paul Cooksey]

I'm inclined to be a bit more generous on standard of play. The errors are a result of both players being willing to play very complex positions.

Ding clearly underestimated 19...Nh4. But the computer line Nepo would have had to find to keep his advantage on move 27 is astonishing. The kind of thing that we would have not known until after the match in a previous generation.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

The structure seemed difficult to assess as well, though that may be me not 'seeing' what might be obvious. There were some really strange positions where random pawns seemed to hold either side's position together. Am I right that several times the engines need to go very deep to get an accurate assessment?

[Ian Thompson]

Am I right that several times the engines need to go very deep to get an accurate assessment?

If that's true, then can you rely on the assessment of any engine giving instant analysis as the game is played? Probably not.

I'm reminded of my own games where it's not that uncommon for the engine that's running while I enter the games into my database to say that I, or my opponent, missed a very good move, only for there to be no mention of the move in the engine's analysis when I give it all night to analyse the whole game.

[Christopher Kreuzer]

Agreed with Ian. This is fairly common with older engines, less so these days, but still an issue in some positions.

A report is out here:

https://www.chess.com/news/view/fide-wo ... 23-game-12

In complete disbelief, Nepomniachtchi would spend the next 17 minutes trying to come up with a move to complicate matters once more. Three moves later, he resigned. Ding barely showed a trace of emotion throughout the entire encounter and didn't let out a smile until he left the playing hall.

[Jonathan Rogers]

If history is anything to go by, we are into tie breaks. When the score has been level with two games to go, the match (in regular time) has almost always finished level (Topalov v Anand being the only recent exception) and with two draws to boot (Karpov v Kasparov 1987 being the exception).

But of course this has been an exceptionally volatile match, Nepo might now be nervous and uneasy at the prospect of drawing today and having to hold the last game as Black, while it might - just might - be thought that Ding would prefer to avoid tie breaks. But when players are nervous and tired, all bets are off with rapid tie breaks. Whether or not one counts it as a world championship match, remember Karpov v Anand 1997, where the former triumphed.

No doubt Carlsen would have beaten either player comfortably, had he been so inclined. But so what? says I. Accepting Carlsen's absence, which other two players would critics have accepted for this match, and would any other two players likely have produced such a gripping one?

[LawrenceCooper]

Another Lopez today. Nepo played a bit passively allowing Ding to equalise and then take over the advantage until a mysterious move 21 leaves the game roughly equal.

[Graham Borrowdale]

Maybe that 21..Re5 was too deep for the online computers. I can’t really listen to the commentary so I don’t know what they make of it.
I wonder if Alex will let us watch the final game during the 4NCL on Saturday (?!).

[LawrenceCooper]

Maybe that 21..Re5 was too deep for the online computers. I can’t really listen to the commentary so I don’t know what they make of it.
I wonder if Alex will let us watch the final game during the 4NCL on Saturday (?!).

Dubov suggested the enterprising 21...Nf4 which is fun to analyse and probably at least okay. 23...Qe8 is apparently better than Qe7 as in the game continuation Bc5 is a useful resource.

[LawrenceCooper]

White now has an extra exchange for a pawn with queens exchanged so Nepo is the one pushing for a win.