Wheat and chessboard problem

丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) – Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi
World Chess Championship 2023; match game 2; Astana, April 10, 2023
Queen’s Gambit Accepted D27

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 d5 4. h3? Classical chess at its worst. 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) blindly trusts the word of a theoretician who claims that he can go further than Sissa. Thus White gives up a tempo for no other purpose than to upset his opponent’s theoretical certainties.

4. ... dxc4!? 4. ... c5! (Tarrasch) appears to give Black a full and comfortable equality after only four moves, but just as an effect of White’s h2-h3. Apparently annoyed, Nepomniachtchi prefers, however, to force the transposition into a dry Queen’s Gambit Accepted, rather than to provide his “refutation” to 4. h3. From a practical point of view, the result is not that different — Black equalises in both cases — but 4. ... c5 might have meant more than that.
5. e3 c5 6. Bxc4 a6 7. 0-0 Nc6 8. Nc3 b5. Or by transposition: 8. ... cxd4 9. exd4 Be7 10. a4 0-0 11. Bf4 Nb4 12. Ne5 b6 13. Qf3 Ra7 14. Rfd1 Bb7= B. Larsen – Ricardi, II Torneo Magistral Internacional “Miguel Najdorf”, Buenos Aires 1991.
9. Bd3 Bb7 10. a4. Formally a novelty. 10. a3 h6!? is an amateurish variation-in-theme of the same plot, Pavlidou – Karaoulanis, 1st Isthmia Open, Vrachati 2011.
10. ... b4 11. Ne4 Na5!? Offering a Pawn sacrifice (actually a Pawn pseudo-sacrifice) that White would have been wiser to accept.

Here Danish Grandmaster Peter Heine Nielsen pointed out the existence of a puzzling “dizygotic twin”: 1. d4 d5 2. c4 dxc4 3. Nf3 Nf6 4. e3 e6 5. Bxc4 c5 6. 0-0 a6 7. Re1 Nc6 8. Nc3 b5 9. Bd3 Bb7 10. a4 b4 11. Ne4 Na5 (the same as the game, with the valuable difference that White has played Rf1-e1 instead of h2-h3) 12. Nxc5 Bxc5 13. dxc5 Nd7 14. c6 Nxc6 15. b3 Qf6 16. Ra2 Nce5 17. Nxe5 Nxe5 18. Be2 0-0 19. Rd2 Rac8 20. f3 h5 21. e4 h4 22. h3 a5 23. Bb2 Qg5 24. Kh1 Ng6 25. Bf1 Nf4 26. Bd4 f5 27. exf5 Qxf5? 28. Re5 Qg6 29. Rxa5 Nxh3? 30. Ra7!+− 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) – Aronian, 2nd Online Speed Chess Championship Main Event, chess.com, December 6, 2021, match game 1 (time control: 5 minutes plus 1 second per move).
12. Nxf6+? White has hardly anything better than 12. Nxc5 Bxc5 13. dxc5 Nd7 14. c6 Nxc6 with a more or less even game. But then why 4. h3?
12. ... gxf6! 12. ... Qxf6 13. e4 h6 was also playable, but Nepomniachtchi is, evidently and rightly, playing for more than equality. Strangely enough, 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) then said he just didn’t expect Black to retake with the Pawn.
13. e4?! Better first 13. dxc5, preventing Black’s next move.
13. ... c4! 14. Bc2 Qc7 15. Bd2 Rg8 16. Rc1 0-0-0! 17. Bd3?! White desperately wants to do something. If 17. Qe1 then 17. ... f5! 18. Kh1 Nc6 firmly holding the upper hand.
17. ... Kb8! 18. Re1. On one hand, it may be noted that after 18. Bxc4 Nxc4 19. Qe2 Rc8 20. b3 Nxd2 21. Rxc7 Nxf3+ 22. Qxf3 Rxc7 the White Queen would cost Black too much material. On the other hand, the text seems too slow, but 18. Qe1 f5! would not be a panacea, either.

18. ... f5! “After I played 18. ... f5, it is clearly very, very shaky for White; he might have something like d4-d5. And then, the position more or less plays itself; I threw the pieces in the centre, and it was enough”, Nepomniachtchi said afterwards.
19. Bc2. Not 19. exf5?? because of 19. ... Rxd4!−+ and if 20. Nxd4 then 20. ... Rxg2+ 21. Kf1 Rxf2+! 22. Kxf2 Qh2+ followed by mate.
19. ... Nc6 20. Bg5

20. ... Rxg5! 21. Nxg5 Nxd4 22. Qh5 f6 23. Nf3 (23. Nxh7 Bc5 24. Nxf6 Qf4−+)
23. ... Nxc2 24. Rxc2 Bxe4 25. Rd2 Bd6! 26. Kh1 c3 27. bxc3 bxc3 28. Rd4 c2 29. Qh6 e5! 0 : 1.

“Today’s game was a disaster”, 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) eventually said. “The h2-h3 move was the idea of my seconds; I just didn’t play it very well”. Photo: Stev Bonhage/FIDE.