Nepomniachtchi again leads Dinh in the world finals
Nepomniachtchi played a risky game in the middle of the game when he accepted Dinh Lap Nhan's (Ding Liren's) experimental water. After 25 moves, the Chinese player is really good, but more than one good and the black king position is also safer. The computer assessed that Dinh had a slight advantage, but he made a difficult move when he accepted to change the statue. According to the world number six player Anish Giri, Dinh could be in danger when there are no more objects.
Giri was right, and Dinh didn't manage his time in the best way when it took too long for the next moves. He moved 32 when the time was only 45 seconds, which means that in the next eight moves he only had an average of 5.6 seconds for a move, including the time to record the game. Moreover, Dinh's move 32 is a mistake.
Dinh's next moves were disastrous because he was forced to go too fast, leading to consecutive mistakes. Nepomniachtchi didn't take much trouble to protect the king, and then counterattacked by stacking the cart in column f. At this time, it is the black king who is in danger. The world's number three player had to apologize in country 37, when there were only a few seconds left on the clock.
The most confusing thing for Dinh is that it took him more than five minutes for the 32nd move, causing viewers to worry that the Candidates runner-up forgot about time. International Grandmaster (IM) Tania Sachdev commented: "If this game had been played online, everyone would have thought that Dinh lost the connection". And IM Levy Rozman wrote: "I have never seen a chess game that made me scream like that".
Explaining the situation in country 32, Dinh said that he discovered that he was running out of water, so he had to find another solution and spend more time.
After this game, Nepomniachtchi took the lead 4-3, when the game was halfway over. The two players will rest for a day before the start of game eight, when Dinh gets to hold the white piece.
The 2023 World Chess Final will take place from April 9 to April 30 in Astana, Kazakhstan, with 14 standard games. Due to Magnus Carlsen's resignation as Chess King, Dinh was promoted to challenge Nepomniachtchi. Each player has 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, an additional 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, and an additional 15 minutes for the rest of the game. From move 61, each player will have 30 extra seconds after each move. Two players play 14 games, but whoever reaches 7.5 points first wins.
