24 April 2023

Game 11 of World Championship Match Ends in Draw

The match score is now 6:5 in favour of Ian Nepomniachtchi.


April 24, the capital city of Kazakhstan hosted Game 11 of the FIDE World Championship Match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren. The Russian GM was in charge of the white pieces. 

The opponents opened the game into the Ruy Lopez with 6. d3, thus sidestepping the mainline modern theory. Ian opted for 8. a3, to which the Chinese grandmaster came back with the most principled reply. First Nepomniachtchi employed the move 11. Bg5, starting contest for the central d5-square, and then improved on white's play from the preceding game Kobalia - Esipenko, thus getting a small edge. A former World Champion Viswanathan Anand highlighted on social media that he "really liked White's position and believed it was easy to play it". 

On thinking for quite some time, Ding launched a somewhat unprepared-looking queenside offensive. White seemed on the verge of gaining a tangible advantage, but Nepomniachtchi opted for mass liquidations to land himself in an up a pawn rook endgame. A draw was agreed on move 39. The game lasted slightly over an hour and a half. 

The match score is now 6:5 in favour of Ian Nepomniachtchi. Tuesday, April 25, is a rest day at the tournament. The Russian grandmaster has the black pieces in the game to come that 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