I know most of you don't follow chess, but this has been a better-than-average championship. Ding Finds Mating Net, Ties Match Score Again - Chess.com
Magnus Carlsen, the previous champion, decided not to defend his title this time around. So the current match is being fought between Grand Master Ding Liren of China, and Grand Master Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia. They were the two top competitors in the 2022 Candidates Tournament. The 2023 FIDE Championship match is taking place in Astana, Kazakhstan.
FIDE, stands for the Fédération Internationale des Échecs or the World Chess Federation in English. It is the governing body for chess on the world stage.
In the last championship match, Carlsen played a standard King's Pawn opening in every game where he played white. Ding Liren opened the most recent game with a somewhat obscure Queen's Pawn opening. (I had to look it up to remember what it was.)
When play began with 1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 d5, commentator Howell scarcely had time to complete his sentence: "Surely he's not going for the London System" before Ding played his bishop to f4 and left the board.
This marked the first time that the London has been played in a world championship match, although it did not surprise the returning challenger Nepomniachtchi, who said he expected it in one of the games if not this game.
Scoring is 1/2 point for a draw, and one point is awarded for a win. There have been 2 draws, and each player has won 2 games, leaving the match is tied at 3 points.
The first player to reach 7.5 points will win. The winner will get 60% of a €2,000,000 prize fund, with the other 40% going to the runner-up. In case the match ends in the tiebreakers, 55% goes to the winner, and 45% goes to the runner-up. I didn't see it listed in the rules, but each player usually gets an up-front payment, on the order of 50,000 Euros to defray travel and other expenses. You can find an outline of the rules at this link, with a link to the full rules if you are interested.
The next game will be Tuesday, April 18, at 15:00 Astana time (2 a.m. PT/11:00 CEST) after a day off.
You can find updates in the News section of Chess.com.
Why Astana, Kazakhstan? Well I think Murray Head said it best in "One Night In Bangkok."
... when you
Play at this level there's no ordinary venueIt's Iceland or the Philippines or Hastings or
or this place!
That song came from the musical Chess, which is apparently all about chess. (I suppose I should make an effort to watch it...)
Of course the best song about chess is "I've Seen All Good People" by Yes from The Yes Album (1971). ("Don't surround yourself with yourself.")
And since no one with a heritage west of Poland, can pronounce Eastern European names, here is a video that tells you exactly how to pronounce Nepomniachtchi.
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