[mtlmtlmtlmtl]

Weirdly enough, the opening actually turned out okay for Ding there, but instead of plcing Nxc5 with a stable advantage he went for the double edged Nxf6 and he played poorly in that game.

Ding had a really bad start though, he really wasn't himself, especially in the first two games. Not sitting at the board much which is very unlike him.

I think if Nepo had played something more challenging in game 1 than the exhange variation he would've probably won the game and possibly been able to kill Ding off while he was still settling into the match.