A dramatic game seven saw Russian chess grandmaster Ian Nepomniachtchi, on Tuesday, April 18, take the lead – for a third time at the World Championship match in Astana – after China’s Ding Liren shocked the audience by playing the French Defence, and eventually blundered the game away.

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Ding completely self-destructed on the clock, tweeted Susan Polgar, a Hungarian-American chess grandmaster who was Women&039;s World Chess Champion from 1996 to 1999.

The Russian GM now leads 4-3.

Game seven which lasted 37 moves and just under four hours came to a sudden end with a victory for Nepomniachtchi after Ding crumbled when he had just seconds on his clock.

Earlier, on Sunday, April 16, game six ended with a convincing victory of Ding who made another comeback to beat Ian Nepomniachtchi, to even the score to 3:3.

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Playing the French Defence, on Tuesday, Ding managed to create a solid position for Black.

He had a weak pawn on c6 but his pieces had more activity.

However, in the process of the game, Nepomniachtchi was able to gain more initiative and press on the kingside. Ding simplified the position by exchanging heavy pieces but was getting deeper into time trouble and with just 44 seconds on the clock, in a critical position, Ding misplayed with 33...Rd3 after which he was completely lost and almost immediately had to resign.