The Russian Jan Nepomnyashchi won the seventh game at the World Chess Championship and took the lead again with 4:3. The 32-year-old prevailed in Astana against the Chinese Ding Liren (30) after 37 moves.
The duel between the two grandmasters goes into the next round on Thursday in the Kazakh capital with the eighth game. There is no game on Wednesday.
Tense game
“The whole game was extremely sharp and extremely tense,” said Nepomnyashchi, who had been surprised by his opponent with a French defense.
In the meantime, Ding Liren had taken the initiative, but in the end he was also short on time. “I don’t think I played that badly, but in the end I messed everything up,” said the Chinese.
At the World Cup, 14 games will be played with long periods of time. A win is worth one point, and a draw gives each player half a point. Whoever reaches 7.5 points first wins. In the event of a tie, the decision will be made in a tie-break on April 30th.
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.
