Nepomniachtchi – Ding World Championship Match 2023

Match results

Each game column shows the score earned by that player. 1 = win, ½ = draw, 0 = loss. Points are out of 18.

Results source

Game 1: An opening draw

Nepomniachtchi’s 6.Bxc6 and 7.Re1 took the Ruy Lopez into an unfamiliar branch; even Carlsen said on Twitter that he had not known 7.Re1 existed. After Ding weakened his queenside with 25...c6, 27.Qf4 gave White serious winning chances. Nepomniachtchi let the advantage slip, notably with 31.f4, and a queen exchange helped Ding reach a drawable endgame. The players agreed a draw after 49 moves, opening the match at ½–½. Source

Game 2: Nepomniachtchi takes the lead

Ding surprised Nepomniachtchi with 4.h3, an idea he credited to his second Richard Rapport. The surprise did not survive the middlegame: after a long think on 12.Nxf6+, Ding overlooked the reply 12...gxf6, which opened the g-file for Black’s attack. Nepomniachtchi’s 20...Rxg5 exchange sacrifice removed White’s bishop and helped Black dismantle the centre. Ding resigned after 29...e5 attacked his rook, giving Nepomniachtchi a 1½–½ lead. Source

Game 3: A balanced response

Nepomniachtchi changed his first move to 1.d4, and Ding answered with the solid Queen’s Gambit Declined. The players followed a 2022 rapid game between Anish Giri and Ding until Nepomniachtchi’s 17.N1e2 prompted Giri to joke: “I feel honored that he wasted world championship match preparation against me!” Ding chose repetition rather than risking a central pawn break. The 30-move draw left Nepomniachtchi ahead 2–1 and gave Ding a steadier game after his previous defeat. Source

Game 4: Ding levels the match

Ding’s English Opening produced an advanced pawn centre, with 24.e6 giving him a passed pawn deep in Black’s position. The decisive moment was Nepomniachtchi’s 28...Nd4, which allowed 29.Rxd4 followed by 30.Nb3. Ding gave up a rook for a knight because his remaining knight could dominate the closed position from d4, while the central pawns restricted Black’s pieces. He converted the advantage in 47 moves to level the match at 2–2. Source

Game 5: Nepomniachtchi strikes again

Nepomniachtchi returned to the Ruy Lopez and played his first 22 moves quickly, building a substantial advantage on the clock. His h- and g-pawns advanced towards Ding’s king, and the breakthrough 37.g5 made the attack concrete. Ding’s 37...hxg5 allowed 38.Rg4, increasing the pressure along the g-file and exposing weaknesses around the king. Nepomniachtchi converted into a winning rook ending, and 48.Rh6 brought resignation and a 3–2 lead. Source

Game 6: A London System victory

Ding’s London System was the opening’s first appearance in a World Championship match, and his 16.a5 fixed Black’s queenside pawns. The finish made the game memorable: 41.d5 took away the e6 escape square and prepared a mating net. After 44.Qf7, the threat was a queen sacrifice on g8 followed by rook checks ending in mate, so Nepomniachtchi resigned without making Ding demonstrate it. Anish Giri called Ding’s calculation “genius”; the win restored equality at 3–3. Source

Game 7: The lead changes again

Ding chose the French Defence after, as he explained afterwards, half-jokingly suggesting it to Rapport and then having his second insist on the idea. His exchange sacrifice with 23...Rxf4 gave him active bishops and a promising position against Nepomniachtchi’s Tarrasch Variation. The clock proved decisive: Ding spent about five minutes on 32...Rd2, leaving less than a minute to reach move 40, and 33...Rd3 allowed White to take the c5-pawn. He resigned on move 37 with only three seconds left, restoring Nepomniachtchi’s lead at 4–3. Source

Game 8: Ding misses a winning chance

Ding’s sharp Sämisch setup against the Nimzo-Indian featured 12.h4, offering a bishop to open the h-file for an attack. His passed d-pawn reached d7, but Nepomniachtchi’s 31...Qh4 created the appearance of a perpetual check while leaving his rook available to capture. Nepomniachtchi later called the idea a “bluff”; Ding could not verify the winning continuation in time and chose 32.Kd1 instead. The resource 37...Nxf2 helped Black escape into a drawn rook ending, keeping the score at 4½–3½. Source

Game 9: A long defensive test

Ding chose the Berlin Defence, which Fabiano Caruana had suggested as a suitable way to reduce Nepomniachtchi’s attacking opportunities. White nevertheless built kingside pressure and reached an endgame with rook, knight and three pawns against rook, knight and two pawns. Ding’s defensive 55...h3 gave up another pawn to secure counterplay, a practical reminder that active defence can matter more than preserving material. The 82-move draw left Nepomniachtchi ahead 5–4. Source

Game 10: The gap stays at one point

Ding returned to the English Opening, but Nepomniachtchi’s 9...Bc5 and unusual 10...Kf8 surprised him. Nepomniachtchi had already reached the same position with White in an online game against Jose Gabriel Cardoso, giving the preparation battle an unusual twist. Ding obtained an extra pawn, but Black’s active pieces and targets on the light squares supplied enough compensation. The 45-move draw ended with only the two kings on the board, and Nepomniachtchi retained a 5½–4½ lead. Source

Game 11: A draw before the turning point

The Ruy Lopez briefly offered a sharper fight when Ding answered 15.Ng5 with the central break 15...c4. Nepomniachtchi chose 19.dxc4, starting a sequence of exchanges that reduced the position to a rook endgame. He later explained that a forced draw had not been his goal: the position had simply led to the pieces being exchanged. Repetition ended the game after 39 moves, leaving him ahead 6–5 with three classical games remaining. Source

Game 12: Ding fights back

Ding chose the Colle System, but Nepomniachtchi took over the initiative and built a winning attack. Both players then missed chances in a tense sequence of reversals before 34...f5 allowed Ding’s immediate 35.Rxe6. Viswanathan Anand’s reaction on Twitter was “and Nepo’s fallen apart! pure nerves!”, capturing the pressure of a game that could have put the match almost beyond Ding’s reach. Nepomniachtchi resigned after 38 moves, and the score was suddenly level at 6–6. Source

Game 13: All square with one game left

In another Ruy Lopez, Ding’s central break 19...d5 gave him promising play before the much-discussed 21...Re5 slowed his initiative. White regrouped, and Ding gave up an exchange for a bishop and pawn to keep the position defensible. Nepomniachtchi’s rooks became active, but further exchanges left too little to turn his material advantage into a win. Fabiano Caruana called the draw “a good result for Ian” after the previous day’s collapse; both players now had 6½ points with one classical game left. Source

Game 14: Classical chess ends level

Ding’s ambitious 12.Ng5 in the Nimzo-Indian did not produce the attack he wanted, and Nepomniachtchi gained the initiative. A series of defensive decisions eventually brought Ding into a rook endgame that he still had to hold accurately. The draw took 90 moves and six hours and 32 minutes, leaving only about 17 hours before the rapid playoff; both players said they would prioritise rest over preparation. The classical match finished 7–7, with Ding drawing White for the first tiebreak game. Source

Game 15: Rapid tiebreak: the first draw

Ding opened the rapid playoff with a queen’s-pawn setup and a fianchettoed king’s bishop, gaining pressure that Fabiano Caruana described as Ding “dictating the result of the opening”. After 25...axb6, Ding’s 26.Nb5 attacked Black’s queen, but 26...Rxd2 and 27.Nxc7 exchanged the queens through a tactical sequence. Further exchanges led to a draw by repetition after 35 moves. The rapid score was ½–½, with both players having survived a complicated first encounter at the faster time control. Source

Game 16: Rapid tiebreak: still level

Nepomniachtchi’s Anti-Marshall Ruy Lopez gave him another chance to press with White, while Ding changed the queenside structure with 11...bxa4. White obtained an opening edge, but Ding defended and steered the game into a drawn rook ending. Nepomniachtchi later identified this as a missed opportunity, saying: “The key moment was in the second game, I had more chances to win but didn’t realize it.” The 47-move draw left the rapid score at 1–1. Source

Game 17: Rapid tiebreak: one game remains

Ding began with 1.Nf3 for the first time in the match, reaching a quiet position with fianchettoed bishops. Nepomniachtchi’s 12...Nf4 forced exchanges, and even though Ding later won a pawn, the opposite-coloured bishops made it insufficient for realistic winning chances. Tania Sachdev called this “the most peaceful” rapid game, and a draw by repetition after 33 moves left the score at 1½–1½ with one game remaining. Source

Game 18: Ding becomes world champion

In the deciding Ruy Lopez, Ding rejected a repetition with 46...Rg6, voluntarily pinning his rook to his king to keep the game alive. Both players were short of time, but Ding’s passed pawns eventually decided the struggle, and Nepomniachtchi resigned after 68...Bxf4. The 2½–1½ playoff victory made Ding the first Chinese World Chess Champion. Carlsen’s congratulatory message singled out the crucial rook move: “Self-pinning for immortality. Congrats Ding!!” Source