Chess: Ding and Nepomniachtchi go to the wire as speed shootout looms

Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi drew the 13th and penultimate round of their world championship match in Astana, Kazakhstan, on Thursday as the prospect of another draw on Saturday and a speed shootout for the crown on Sunday loomed closer. Nepomniachtchi, 32, again opened with the Ruy Lopez but stood worse in the middle game until Ding, 30, spoiled his advantage and opted to halve by threefold repetition of position, saying later: “It was still some kind of dark ocean position, so I didn’t go further into it.”

The final outcome now depends on Saturday’s 14th and final classical game. If the score is then 7-7, they go to rapid and blitz tie-break games, the chess equivalent of a penalty shootout, on Sunday. Play begins at 10am BST, and the official website with grandmaster commentary is worldchampionship.fide.com. The games can also be watched on chess.com, chess24.com and chessgames.com.

The speed tie-break, if needed, will consist of four 25-minute games, with a 10-second increment from move one. If they are still tied, up to two pairs of 5+3 games will be played. If tied again, they go to single 3+2 games, with colours reversed each game, until there is a winner.

Deciding the crown by rapid and blitz games has happened four times previously, following a change in title rules which used to allow the champion to keep his title after a drawn match. Vlad Kramnik v Veselin Topalov in 2006, Vishy Anand v Boris Gelfand in 2012, Magnus Carlsen v Sergey Karjakin in 2016, and Carlsen v Fabiano Caruana in 2018 were all decided by speed tiebreaks.

Anand and Carlsen were renowned for their skills at fast chess, This time Ding, who ranks No 2 to Carlsen in rapid, has a slight edge in the ratings, but the outcome may be determined