Ready, Set, Match! All Remains Drawn On The Sixty Four Squares
The World Chess Championship will go to tiebreaks
I want to thank Magnus Carlsen from the bottom of my heart for giving us the opportunity to see such mind-blowing games and to watch players come to the chess board armed to the teeth, vying for the winning spot.
As Levy Rozman of Gothamchess would frequently say: ‘Chess is hard, man. Chess is really hard.’
Game 14 of the World Chess Championship match featured Ding Liren playing with the white pieces and Yan Nepomniachtchi playing with black. The classical games are over and it is time for rapid and blitz.
I’m gonna be honest here and say I know very well that Yan can be an absolute beast when it comes to faster time controls (rapid and blitz).
I haven’t seen Ding play a lot of rapid or blitz but I hope he has his wits about him because he seems to be under a lot of time pressure at critical moments and that will cost you when you’re playing 5+0 or 3+0 blitz.
Nevertheless, both players are going to come with their absolute best performance tomorrow and it’s going to be fingers crossed because, at this juncture, it’s anybody’s game. One blunder could spell the end of the match and seal the title of World Champion for either player.
Both players had a plethora of chances during Game 14 and Ding was under a lot of pressure, both by Yan with his impeccable defense and by the clock.
On move 34 of the game, Ding made a positional blunder with the move Ke2, giving Yan the opportunity to play Rc3 which would essentially win him the game.
But both players missed that important tactic and the game eventually ended in a draw after 90 moves.
On Sunday, the tiebreaks begin and will feature Ding starting with the white pieces just like in Game 14 of the classical games.
Who will win? Who will come out ahead? Tune in at Chesscom on Sunday to find out!
