Ding bounces back on a day of draws

Yekaterinburg (Russia), March 20

China’s Ding Liren bounced back from two losses to defeat world No. 2 Fabiano Caruana of USA in the third round of the 2020 Candidates chess tournament here on Thursday.

Three players lead the eight-player tournament – Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave of France and Wang Hao of China, all on two points. Caruana and Russia’s Alexander Grischuk are a half-point behind. Netherland’s Anish Giri, Russia’s Kirill Alekseenko and Ding have one point.

Playing with white, Ding had to dig deep to neutralise the threat from the former World Championship contender. Despite getting into time trouble, Ding managed to consolidate his material advantage after Caruana’s pawn sacrifices before forcing the American to resign. After the game, Ding said he hoped to recover to his top form and get back to the top of the scoreboard.

All the other games of the day — Giri vs Vachier-Lagrave, Grischuk vs Wang and Alekseenko vs Nepomniachtchi – ended in draws.

‘Japanese bow instead of creepy elbow-shake’

Due to the coronavirus threat, Giri suggested that there should be a new code agreed between the players when it comes to handshakes. The Dutchman argued that it was very confusing as some people offer handshakes and some refuse.

“I think it would be much more elegant to do a bow as the Japanese do,” Giri said. “I think they do that in shogi and it would make a lot of sense. This ‘elbow-shake’ is very creepy. From all the possible ways to show respect to each other, this is the creepiest,” the 25-year-old added. — Agencies