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The Astana Tiebreak

Seven-all after fourteen classical games and three drawn rapids — then, with about a minute on his clock, Ding Liren refuses a repetition and wins the world title with Black.

Nepomniachtchi, Ian against Ding, Liren  ·  FIDE World Championship Match 2023 Rapid Tie-break · 2023.04.30  ·  0-1

MOMENTS 4 turnsSCORE verified PGN
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The turns of the screw

The moments

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The cast

The players

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Ian Nepomniachtchi

B. 1990 · BRYANSK, RUSSIA

European champion in 2010 and twice Russian champion, famous for the speed of his play. He won the Candidates Tournament twice in a row, lost the 2021 title match to Magnus Carlsen in Dubai, and in Astana came within one rapid game of the crown.

no portrait
in the archive

Ding Liren

B. 1992 · WENZHOU, CHINA

Chinese champion at sixteen and for years China's highest-rated player, he entered the 2022 Candidates only as a late replacement and finished second. This game made him the seventeenth undisputed World Champion; he held the title until losing it to Gukesh in 2024.

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The score

The moves are history's; we checked them against it.

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 a6 4. Ba4 Nf6 5. O-O Be7 6. d3 b5 7. Bb3 d6 8. a4 Bd7 9. h3 O-O 10. Be3 Na5 11. Ba2 bxa4 12. Nc3 Rb8 13. Bb1 Qe8 14. b3 c5 15. Nxa4 Nc6 16. Nc3 a5 17. Nd2 Be6 18. Nc4 d5 19. exd5 Nxd5 20. Bd2 Nxc3 21. Bxc3 Bxc4 22. bxc4 Bd8 23. Bd2 Bc7 24. c3 f5 25. Re1 Rd8 26. Ra2 Qg6 27. Qe2 Qd6 28. g3 Rde8 29. Qf3 e4 30. dxe4 Ne5 31. Qg2 Nd3 32. Bxd3 Qxd3 33. exf5 Rxe1+ 34. Bxe1 Qxc4 35. Ra1 Rxf5 36. Bd2 h6 37. Qc6 Rf7 38. Re1 Kh7 39. Be3 Be5 40. Qe8 Bxc3 41. Rc1 Rf6 42. Qd7 Qe2 43. Qd5 Bb4 44. Qe4+ Kg8 45. Qd5+ Kh7 46. Qe4+ Rg6 47. Qf5 c4 48. h4 Qd3 49. Qf3 Rf6 50. Qg4 c3 51. Rd1 Qg6 52. Qc8 Rc6 53. Qa8 Rd6 54. Rxd6 Qxd6 55. Qe4+ Qg6 56. Qc4 Qb1+ 57. Kh2 a4 58. Bd4 a3 59. Qc7 Qg6 60. Qc4 c2 61. Be3 Bd6 62. Kg2 h5 63. Kf1 Be5 64. g4 hxg4 65. h5 Qf5 66. Qd5 g3 67. f4 a2 68. Qxa2 Bxf4 0-1 0-1

ECO C84 · our PGN header reads Date 2023.04.30

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What happened

The story behind it

Magnus Carlsen's decision not to defend his title left the 2023 World Championship to the two players who had finished first and second in the Candidates: Ian Nepomniachtchi, who had lost a title match two years earlier, and Ding Liren, a late substitute. They met in Astana. Fourteen classical games ended level at 7–7, and on 30 April the match went to four rapid games at twenty-five minutes a side.

The first three were drawn. In the fourth Nepomniachtchi had White and chose the Ruy Lopez, bringing his bishop back to b1 on move thirteen, a fresh idea. Ding answered with 29...e4, gave the pawn to bring his knight to d3, and exchanged it for the bishop. By the fortieth move each player had a queen, a rook and a bishop, and Black's clock was running out faster.

Around move 44 Nepomniachtchi found a sequence of queen checks; a repetition was the natural end. After 46.Qe4+ the broadcast clock showed Ding roughly a minute and a half for the rest of the game; one more king move and the title would go to faster games. He put his rook on g6 instead.

Two moves later, down to his last minute and a quarter, Nepomniachtchi played 48.h4, and the black queen walked to d3, behind a c-pawn now free to run. The rest was not clean: Ding gave back much of his edge with 53...Rd6, and Nepomniachtchi let slip a chance to hold with 59.Qc7. Still, 68...Bxf4 left Black a pawn on c2 one step from queening and another on g3. Nepomniachtchi resigned.

Ding became the first player from China to win the open World Championship. It is remembered for the one move on which a player low on time, a draw in hand, chose to keep playing for the title.

A repetition was there for the taking. With a minute and a half on his clock, Ding put a rook in the way of the check and played for the world.

The clock figures on this page are read from the official broadcast's per-move times, which include the ten-second increment.

Provenance

The score is FIDE's official live broadcast of the match, relayed move by move on the day; the chessgames.com database copy agrees with it on all 136 half-moves, and it replays legally by machine to the final position, where White resigned facing a black pawn one step from queening. Verified 2026-10-05.
  • Lichess, official broadcast of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2023 — Tie-breaks — the live relay of the four rapid games, with event, round, date and clock times
  • chessgames.com, Nepomniachtchi vs Ding Liren, 2023 — full score with event, site and date; identical to the broadcast move for move
  • Wikipedia, World Chess Championship 2023 — match dates and venue, 7–7 classical score, the 25+10 rapid tiebreak format, qualification
  • Russian Chess Federation, "Ding Liren becomes new World Champion", 30 April 2023 — same-day report of the tiebreak result
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Questions

Who won the 2023 World Chess Championship?
Ding Liren of China. His match against Ian Nepomniachtchi in Astana, Kazakhstan, finished 7–7 after fourteen classical games; Ding then won the rapid tiebreak 2½–1½ on 30 April 2023 by winning the fourth and last rapid game with the black pieces, becoming the first player from China to hold the open World Championship title.
How did the 2023 World Championship tiebreak work?
With the classical games level at 7–7, the title was settled the same week by four rapid games at 25 minutes per player with a 10-second increment per move. The first three rapid games were drawn, so the fourth decided the championship; had it also been drawn, faster games would have followed.
What happened in the decisive tiebreak game between Nepomniachtchi and Ding?
The game reached a balanced queen-and-rook ending in which Ding, with about a minute and a half left, could have accepted a draw by repetition. Instead he played 46...Rg6, blocking the check and keeping the game alive. Two moves later Nepomniachtchi, also short of time, played 48.h4, a serious error, and after more mistakes on both sides Black's passed pawns decided the game; White resigned after 68...Bxf4.
Why didn't Magnus Carlsen play in the 2023 World Championship?
Magnus Carlsen, champion since 2013, announced in July 2022 that he would not defend his title, saying he lacked the motivation for another match. The two leading finishers of the 2022 Candidates Tournament — Ian Nepomniachtchi, the winner, and Ding Liren, the runner-up — played for the vacant title instead.
Who had the white pieces in the game that decided the 2023 title?
Ian Nepomniachtchi. The rapid tiebreak alternated colours, Ding Liren taking White in games one and three, so Ding won the championship with Black, out of a Closed Ruy Lopez, in the fourth and final rapid game.