WCC 2024 Round 11: Ding Blunders a Piece in a Complicated Slugfest

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 12 starts at 09:00 UTC on Monday, December 9.

Today's round was covered by our hosts GM Felix Blohberger and IM Laura Unuk.

The annotations by GM Yannick Gozzoli can be found at the bottom of the article.

Schedule

Stream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t9Ny-gipTNE

Match Score

Recap

GM Gukesh D played a very enterprising opening today, with GM Ding Liren also choosing to take the game into more dynamic waters by choosing an aggressive setup. As a complex game evolved, both sides were under time pressure, and on move 28, Ding blundered a piece in what was otherwise a slightly worse, or simply worse, position.

Clips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FTfE4nQBiEs

More clips at the bottom of the article.

A Unique Position, Nuanced Complications, and a Blunder

Calm before the storm
Photo: Eng Chin An

Gukesh has shown that he "just likes to play chess" as he has previously put it, and today, he came armed with deep preparation in the Réti Opening. Ding also showed his fighting spirit as he responded to Gukesh's 2. c4 with 2...d4, a dynamic move that invites White to steer the game into complicated tactical waters.

GM Hou Yifan, the second highest rated female player of all time, made today's ceremonial first move.
Photo: Lesley Turpijn

Gukesh was of course well-prepared for 2...d4 as he responded with the highly combative 3. b4, which is played as an initiative-gaining pawn sacrifice. After Ding's principled 3...c5 and two normal developing moves, 4. e3 and 4...Nf6, Gukesh played 5. a3, yet another (almost) novel opening idea by Gukesh's team, which definitely surprised Ding as he spent twenty minutes on his next move, 5...Bg4.

A picture is worth a thousand words.
Photo: Eng Chin An

After Gukesh clarified the central tension with 6. exd4 and enticed Black to trade off his light-squared bishop with 7. h3, Ding played 8...Qc7. While Ding's queen move may initially look strange, it actually has quite a clear purpose: to prepare e5, a move that gains central space.

8...Qc7!
Photo: Eng Chin An

In fact, Ding's move provoked a slight inaccuracy from Gukesh, who revealed in the press conference that he may have mixed up his preparation at that point — 8...Nc6 is met well with 9. d3, but 9. d3 after 8...Qc7, as Gukesh played in the game, is not the most precise try. Ding responded correctly with 9...c5, hitting at White's queenside pawn structure and forcing White to give up the key c5 square and, long-term, the queenside dark squares.

Beth Harmon?
Photo: Eng Chin An

It was on move 11 when Gukesh noticed that he had gone astray as he spent an hour to play 11. g3, which was actually the best move in the position. Gukesh noted that following his long think, he went to his lounge to regain his compure and get his focus back as he was annoyed he spent so much time on one move. Meanwhile, Ding's 12...Nfd7, while a fine move according to the engine, was perhaps the first portent of doom for Ding. Instead, a simpler approach with 12...e5, 13...Bd6, and 14...O-O would have been a better course of action.

Gukesh had to focus anew
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

After Ding's knight made its way to e5, White's queen was now on the awkward f4 square, where it attacked the d4-pawn and pinned Black's c7-queen, though, apart from that, was badly misplaced. With the strong and engine-approved 14...Rd8, Ding protected his d4-pawn and was hinting at breaking White's pin with a later Qd6, which would leave White in a difficult spot as the d3-pawn would then be very difficult to defend.

Ding had a chance today.
Photo: Eng Chin An

Instead, Ding chose the wrong plan as he revealed in the press conference that he was deeply concerned about his inactive dark-squared bishop, so he decided to play 15...g6 to give his bishop some potential on the h6-c1 diagonal. However, it again looked like Ding was overthinking matters as the much more obvious 15...e6, followed by 16...Qd6, would have asked White some very tough questions and kept a slight advantage for Ding.

Deep in thought
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

At that point, Gukesh was still somewhat concerned about his position, but after he found the correct 16. a4!, he said that he felt more relaxed. After Ding played 16...h5, the logical followup to his 15...g6, Gukesh found another powerful move, a pawn sacrifice with 17. b6!!. 17. b6 was in fact a long-term pawn sacrifice as Black could not have played 17...Qxb6 in view of 18. Qxe5.

That's a good sac.
Photo: Eng Chin An

For the next few moves, White gained control over the queenside dark squares thanks to 17. b6; meanwhile, Black developed his dark-squared bishop and repositioned some of his pieces. A curious and perhaps easy-to-overlook moment came about on move 21. Ding could have merely castled, but instead he chose the more awkward-looking and too defensive 21...Rd7.

Really?
Photo: Eng Chin An

Both sides kept playing reasonable moves, though, with Gukesh continuing to develop his pieces and Ding castling. Gukesh then came up with an intriguing and peculiar knight maneuver to reach the b3 and later the c5 square. As he played 25. Na1, Gukesh surely must have felt very satisfied to make such an aesthetically-pleasing move.

Chess is beautiful.
Photo: Eng Chin An

Ding fought against Gukesh's plan with 25...Rb8, a move which the engine does not rebuke, but one which is not such a strong practical decision. As Gukesh touched on in the press conference, 25...Na7 would have been a good try to repeat moves as 26. Rxb7 is not such a strong winning attempt for White, while 26. Rb3 Nc6 would have been one way to offer a draw. Indeed, Gukesh did not think he had much after 25...Na7.

A grand entrance
Photo: Eng Chin An

Another mistake from Ding in 26...e6 gave White a sizeable advantage; it was not clear why 26...e6 was so much inferior to 26...Rd6, though. In fact, a couple of moves later, Ding would have still been in the game had he found the line-blocking 28...Nb4, whereafter the lines get complicated, but Black should be able to hold.

Is this my world championship to win?
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Instead, tragedy struck as Ding blundered an entire piece with 28...Qc8, a blunder that definitely arose because of the pressure, both imagined and real, that Ding was under and which Gukesh was able to create.

Ding's blunder was not shocking considering the pressure he was facing, but blunders are always painful.
Photo: Eng Chin An

Annotations by GM Yannick Gozzoli

Press Conference

Ding is gracious in defeat.
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Gukesh was beaming with excitement.
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Some memorable quotes:

GM Ding Liren:

Yeah last time also in the 12th round I made a comeback with the White pieces. Tomorrow I will definitely try.

GM Gukesh D:

At some point I was really worried about my position.

I was more surprised with Ding saying he was in trouble after 15...g6 because I thought I was in trouble.

Prediction

Ding: 15.1%; Gukesh: 84.9%

For more on interpreting this graph, check our preview article.

Courtesy of izzie26

More Clips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ewchxe9eVQs

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