WCC 2024 Round 1: Ding Liren Wins With the French Defense

Lichess is providing a live stream for every day of the world championship. Make sure to tune in to our Twitch or YouTube channels for live stream coverage with our hosts GM Felix Blohberger and IM Laura Unuk, joined by a rotating panel of guests. Round 2 starts at 09:00 UTC on Tuesday, November 26.

Today's round was covered by IM Laura Unuk and guest GM Aleksandar Indjic. Round 2 will be covered by our two hosts and GM Mathew Sadler, with GM Levon Aronian and GM Nils Grandelius joining as guests for later rounds. GM Mathew Sadler covered today's round on his own channel with a surprising guest appearance from Leela.

The annotations by GM David Navara can be found at the bottom of the article.

The match schedule can be found here.

Stream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zxNVzMiczdk

Match Score

Report

As the first game of the 2024 World Chess Championship was set to take place, the tension in the air was palpable. The tension between the players, perhaps not so much, but the fans were definitely channeling a lot of energy as all eyes were on GM Ding Liren and GM Gukesh D.

A sign of respect before the board is set on fire in an absolutely thrilling first round game!
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

The first question of the day was how Gukesh would choose to start off with the White pieces. Any player vying for the world championship title could be considered a "universal player", so 1. e4, 1. d4, 1. c4, and 1. Nf3 were all on the cards. The ceremonial first move, conducted by world renowned DeepMind CEO Sir Demis Hassabis, after consultation with Gukesh, who himself has described his style as "universal", was 1. e4.

DeepMind CEO Sir Demis Hassabis makes the ceremonial first move.
Photo: Eng Chin An

The world was in for a surprise, a mildly shocking one, as GM Ding Liren struck back with 1...e6, the French Defense.

2024 European Individual Chess Championship winner GM Aleksandar Indjic related this funny anecdote about the French Defense.

The choice was not so surprising as despite the French Defense being a rare guest in world championship matches and top chess in general, Ding had already played it in 2023 against the previous challenger to the World Championship, GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, in a game he actually lost. For his part, Gukesh also came back with another startling move, 6. Nce2, which is a very rare response in comparison to the much more common 6. Nf3.

Opening surprise after opening surprise
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Ding was not initially so taken aback as he played 6...Nc6 relatively quickly, but he did spend a considerable amount of time afterward — almost half an hour on 7...a5 (where Gukesh responded instantly with 8. Nf3), about 15 minutes on 10...Qa5, and approximately 20 minutes on 14...Nb6. After 7. c3 and as Ding was thinking about 7...a5, Ding mentioned that he was deciding which line to choose, and whether he should go for a line he had analyzed but did not remember well or a safer option. After Ding's long thinks, however, Gukesh started to slow down, and he spent an incredible ~35 minutes on the innocuous-looking 17. Qe2. By that point, it became clear that the chess world would have a match under its collective hands as the game was evening out both on the board and the clock.

Gukesh is known to meditate and practice yoga.
Photo: Eng Chin An

Before diving into the later moves of the game, let's first consider Gukesh's highly aggressive and novel — yes, a novelty, but only one in the Masters database and not the Lichess database! — 10. g4.

On the surface, 10. g4 prepares the f5 push, a standard break for White in the French Defense. Having said that, 10. g4 also has a more subtle purpose: a later g5, gaining further space and control over the dark squares, could be a strong positional idea. 10. g4 also made "meta" sense in that after Ding gained space on the queenside, Gukesh gained space on the kingside. Ding responded spectacularly with the powerful 10...Qa5, posing some questions for White, who had to make a decision concerning the central tension and king safety. Gukesh, who mentioned that he had prepared 10. g4 and was out of book after 10...Qa5, played the very reasonable developing move 11. Bg2. After Ding's logical follow-up, 11...a5, play proceeded logically, especially with the important intermezzo by Gukesh, 13. b4!, which kept the game balanced.

The big number of spectators also gained space in the hall.
Photo: Eng Chin An

The tides started shifting on move 20, though, as Gukesh played the somewhat inaccurate 20. Rac1, which, granted, seemed like a very natural move. Ding inched closer with his queen, attacking White's weak a2-pawn, and Gukesh responded with the perfunctory 21. f5 break, which was also an inaccuracy. Gukesh then blundered with 22. Qe1??, which allowed Black's dark-squared bishop to enter the game with powerful effect after 22...Bg5! Instead, 22. g5, preventing Bg5 mechanically, was better.

Ding was looking determined today.
Photo: Eng Chin An

The position was so bad, in fact, that Stockfish suggested sacrificing the exchange with 23. Nb3 — and, of course, in typical Stockfish fashion, the best move after that would be to not take the exchange and instead play 23...Qc4, though 23...Bxc1 is obviously fine as well. White's pieces were simply terribly misplaced and White's g-pawn push was a source of regret as Black's queen kept making inroads into the White camp.

Ding's French was paying off.
Photo: Eng Chin An

Nevertheless, there was still hope left, as the position was still not stable and, in fact, Ding played what was technically a mistake on the 27th move, recapturing on e6 with the pawn instead of the bishop. Again, such details seem much easier when one has the oracle of Delphi evaluating chess positions. Indeed, Gukesh's final blunder of the game, 30. Qc2??, instead of 30. Bc5 first and only then 31. Qc2, was quite understandable as Gukesh missed the subtlety of allowing the Black king to escape and castle short. After that, it was smooth sailing for Ding, who won without a hitch and, as the current rating underdog, put out a strong statement to the chess world at large.

Gukesh was dejected, but remained as composed and tenacious as ever in the press conference.
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Annotations by GM David Navara

To view the annotation with all the symbols displayed, open the study directly here.

Press Conference

As a triumphant Ding looks at the position, GM Gukesh remained in learning mode, even after a tough loss.
Photo: Eng Chin An

Ding mentioned that he hadn't won a classical game in a while, so it was good to get this victory in, but as objective and humble as he is, he mentioned that he missed two brilliant tactical resources for Gukesh, which he proceeded to show — Ding mentioned he was lucky to have won because he had missed those tactics initially, but intuition definitely plays a part in playing the correct move even when one does not necessarily see all the possible subtleties. Gukesh also mentioned that he had relied on the same tactical subtlety Ding mentioned, and he thought the position started slipping early on and especially more so after 18...Nb2!, which he "did not take seriously". Gukesh admitted he was a bit nervous heading into the game but calmed down as his opening surprise landed and he gained a big lead on the clock. Of course, Gukesh's composure and well-thought-out responses during the press conference were nothing short of commendable.

Some memorable quotes:

GM Gukesh D: "I expected nothing else. I expected the best version of him."

GM Ding Liren: "It was our [GM Richard Rapport's and Ding's] idea to play the French in the first game."

GM Gukesh D on playing g4 quickly: "A move like g4 you generally don't play without preparation."

GM Ding Liren: "Tomorrow I have White pieces and since I haven't prepared yet so I don't what's the approach I will take tomorrow."