Ian Nepomniachtchi struck again with a powerfully performed win in opposition to Ding Liren in sport 5
of their World Championship match in Astana, Kazakhstan.

After getting nothing in opposition to the Queen’s Gambit in Sport 3 Nepomniachtchi switched again to
the 1.e4 he utilized in sport 1. The closed Ruy Lopez has lengthy been Ding’s weapon, this offers
black and white quite a lot of selections and is a excessive talent opening. Each gamers can have
positively been accustomed to the sport Firouzja-Giri from Miami final yr which was
additionally received by white in the long run. 12.Bg5 was Nepomniachtchi’s new transfer
he stated later “The place was a part of my prep. However I ought to credit score my opponent that for nearly all
the sport he performed fairly wise strikes.”

The center sport was now very tough, Ding’s 19…Bd8 caused exchanges that left
him with a bishop that was considerably out of the sport and a kingside that did not
have many items defending it, 23.h4 was the beginning of Nepomniachtchi’s plan
to take advantage of this. Computer systems need 23…Ra2 going for queenside counter play, maybe
that is appropriate, 25…Rd8 was additionally one other steered enchancment. Ding recognized
29…Nxf5? (29…Qf6! was significantly better) as his most important mistake, he stated he missed the energy of 33.g4.
Nepomniachtchi had an enormous benefit now and was fully in his factor.
34.Qd5, 35.Kf1 and 36.Re4 all put the stress on Ding who was slipping
into extreme time stress. 37…hxg5 could have been the decisive mistake however
even with an engine operating black’s alternate options do not appear that appetizing,
the purpose was 38.Rg4 f6 was refuted by the piece sacrifice 39.Nh4. After 38…Ra8
there was little question as to the consequence and Ding resigned on transfer 48.

Ding Liren: “This loss hurts much more than the earlier one. I believed I used to be completely nice. However, okay, we nonetheless have many rounds forward. I hope I can recuperate from this robust loss.”

Rating: Nepomniachtchi 3-2 Ding. Better of 14.

Sport 6 Sunday sixteenth April 10am UK time.