World Championship Match 2023 - Game 4

COMEBACK!

A terrible blunder by Ian Nepomniachtchi led to a great comeback by Liren Ding in game 4 of the World Championship Match in Astana.

The game started with Ding - playing white - 1.c4



Ian took much more time than Liren in the opening, showing that maybe he didn't expect the Chinese number one to play the Four Knights system.
The game looked interesting and tense already at an early stage.
There have been some imprecisions, and White seemed to be more active, though the engine evaluations gave the game as equal.
At around move 25, Ian started blitzing his moves as if he had thought it all over.
But at move 28, when everyone was expecting the right g5, Ian blundered away the game by playing the incredible Nd4?

It took ding a few moments to realize that he had the win in his hand, and the Chinese wizard sacrificed quality on that knight to get into a winning position with super-precise play after a few moves:

Position after move 34

Nepo tried to do his best, but Liren didn't let it slip, and playing very well and pragmatically forced Ian to resign.

Nepomniachtchi resigns game 4

Here is the game:

This is the post-game press conference, from the FIDE Official YouTube Channel: