Jan Nepomnyashchi took the lead again at the World Chess Championship with a win in the fifth game. The 32-year-old Russian won the duel with the Chinese Ding Liren on Saturday in Astana in 48 moves. After the second win for Nepomnyashchi the score is 3:2.
“This defeat hurts even more than the previous one. I thought it was going well,” Ding said. “But we still have many laps ahead of us. I hope that I can recover from this tough defeat,” emphasized the 30-year-old Chinese.
Carlsen lacked motivation for World Cup duel
The sixth duel between the two grandmasters in the Kazakh capital is on Sunday. 14 games are played with a long thinking time. A win is worth one point, and a draw gives each player half a point. Whoever reaches 7.5 points first wins.
The Chinese thing last got its first win in the fourth game on Thursday. Twice the duels had previously ended in a draw. Nepomnyashchi had won the 2022 Candidates Tournament, Ding had finished second. Because permanent world champion Magnus Carlsen did not compete due to a lack of motivation, the two are playing for the world title. In the event of a tie, the tiebreak will be decided on April 30th.
