Good morning everyone and welcome to the live blog from day 1 of the Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Ding Liren, aka Nepo – Ding final match of the World Chess Championship 2023! We will cover all day long the events from Madrid, where the battles start today at 15:00 CET. The news will appear here on this live blog, time stamped at reverse chronological order. Scroll down to the first news of the day, while on top you will find the latest curiosities from Astana.
Parallel today: Caruana – Nakamura from the Chessable Masters 2023 / Fagernes Chess 2023 / 20+ live events here
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9:25 CET
GM Anand, GM Irina Krush and GM Dubov will be the official commentators of the Ding – Nepo 2023 match. GM Dubov published his first preview a few days ago. Now he goes in more details in a second video about the World Chess Championship 2023
9:15 CET
Ding Liren gave multiple interviews during his first days in Astana. “Topalov vs. Kramnik in 2006 was the first match I paid attention to. At that time, I never thought that one day I would stand on this stage.” More statements from Ding Liren in Dr. Dudayeff’s report
9:00 CET
The Nepo – Ding match will be held at the St. Regis Astana hotel, a relatively new hotel with short history. The St. Regis brags to be designed by British architects WATG and features an award-winning design by Wimberly Interiors that combines modern with neo-classical elements. That sounds like a great start, but many top chess events have suffered from organizational blunders, related to logistics, food, playing hall conditions and more. That is why we are closely following the actual playing conditions in the St. Regis.
The first words from both camps are that they are generally satisfied with the conditions and the playing hall. Multiple questions were raised in the past days, but all seems in order in the currently empty playing hall. Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren avoid meeting in person, but both of them had a tour around the playing hall. Chairs were tried, walls were stared at, and photo session taken.
Food has been an issue for Ding in the 2022 Candidates where he even started cooking his own rice. At St. Regis everything seems in order and initial reports show Ding Liren is happy with the food in Astana. Here is a photo of Ding Liren during one of the multiple photo sessions he had before the match in the hotel.
