ASTANA, April 18. /TASS/. Playing white pieces on Tuesday, Russian Chess Grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi defeated Chinese Grandmaster Ding Liren in Game 7 of their battle for the new World Chess Champion.
After seven games played to determine the 17th World Champion in chess, Nepomniachtchi is ahead of Ding 4-3.
They will meet each other again in Game 8 on April 20 with the Russian playing black pieces.
Speaking about the current progress of the encounter between Nepomniachtchi and Ding, FIDE (World Chess Federation) President Arkady Dvorkovich said that "Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren are true athletes."
"We witness a unique match for the world chess crown with its contenders exchanging powerful blows against each other. The main fight is still ahead," the FIDE president told Russia’s Sport-Express daily.
According to official regulations, posted on the FIDE (World Chess Federation) website, "the World Championship Match consists of 14 games. The player who scores 7.5 points or more wins the Match, and no further games are played. If the score after 14 games is equal, the winner is decided on a tiebreak."
FIDE stated earlier that "Champion Magnus Carlsen officially declined to participate, the Match will be played between the two challengers, the winner of the 2022 Candidates Tournament, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and the runner-up, Ding Liren."
On July 20, 2022, Magnus Carlsen, the Norwegian Chess Grandmaster and reigning world champion, refused to participate in a match for the world chess crown against Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi, saying at that time that he was "not motivated to play another match" and simply felt that he did not "have a lot to gain."
Following Carlsen’s withdrawal last year, Nepomniachtchi was slated to face China’s Ding Liren, who was his runner-up at the 2022 Candidates Chess Tournament.
The battle for the 2023 World Chess Crown between Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi and China’s Ding Liren is being hosted by the capital of Kazakhstan, Astana.
Nepomniachtchi, 32, is contesting the world chess crown for the second time. In 2021, he lost to Norway’s Magnus Carlsen 3.5-7.5. He won the European champion title in 2010 and won the World Team Championships as a member of the Russian team in 2013 and 2019. Apart from that, he is a two-time champion of Russia (2010, 2020).
Ding Liren, 30, won the 2019 Grand Chess Tour, and won the Chinese Chess Championship three times: in 2009, 2011 and 2012.