23 April 2023

Game 10 of World Championship Match Ends in Draw

The match score is now 5.5:4.5 in favour of Ian Nepomniachtchi.


Game 10 of the World Championship Match between Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia) and Ding Liren (China) took place in Astana on Sunday, April 23. Kunsulu Zakarya, the President of the National Academy of Sciences of Kazakhstan, made the symbolic first move. 

Playing White, the Chinese grandmaster chose the English Opening. Daniil Dubov called the 4...Bc5 move as an attempt to force a draw. "We have finally come to see a real World Championship Match," remarked the grandmaster in the English-language broadcast. The game continuation already happened in the Russian GM's game back in 2020 but with the colours reversed. Nepomniachtchi made his opening moves rather quickly to demonstrate his insight into this position, while his opponent started burning clock early in the game because this particular line required precision. There arose a fairly unorthodox position with Black losing this castling right as early as move ten. 

Ding castled on move 14, deviating from the Internet game Nepomniachtchi – Cardoso. Soon Black decided to sacrifice a pawn, and the Chinese grandmaster accepted it with the exchange of queens and bishops as a result. The position simplified a lot. With active and precise play Black managed to keep his ground in the down a pawn endgame with rooks and same-coloured bishops. A draw was agreed after Black's move 45. 

The match score is now 5.5:4.5 in favour of Ian Nepomniachtchi. Game 11 is taking place on April 24, in which the white pieces are with the Russian grandmaster. The next game starts at 12:00 (Moscow time).

You can follow the match live broadcast on Match TV channels. Nornickel is the company that sponsors the broadcast in Russia.

The fan area sponsor for the World Championship Match is Rosseti Centre. 

General partner of the CFR is PhosAgro.

Tournament page

Photo credit: Eteri Kublashvili