WCC 2024 Round 2: A Solid Draw With Many Positional Subtleties

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 3 starts at 09:00 UTC on Wednesday, November 27.

Today's round was covered by our hosts, GM Felix Blohberger and IM Laura Unuk, and guest GM Mathew Sadler. Round 3 will be covered by our two hosts and GM Levon Aronian, with GM Mathew Sadler and GM Nils Grandelius joining as guests for later rounds.

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=7-hk6B_ywxQ

Match Score

Report

Calm before the storm?
Photo: Eng Chin An

GM Ding Liren once again played some preparation mind games as he started the game with 1. e4. He had recently been playing 1. e4, potentially as a means to throw off GM Gukesh D's team, and it turned out that he was practicing 1. e4 positions in earnest as GM Felix Blohberger noted. Soon enough, an Italian was on the board, one particular variation which put a modern twist on an ancient variation.

Let the battle begin.
Photo: Eng Chin An

In what soon turned out to be a rare line, Ding played a novelty with 9. a5 — GM Mathew Sadler remarked that this move was a very interesting positional decision. The greedy 10...Bb4 was always possible, but Gukesh simply castled and avoided going into Ding's deep preparation.

Let's not go for the greedy 10...Bb4.
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

After some central stability was achieved, Ding played a smart positional move, 12. b3, whose main purpose was to prophylactically protect c4 in some key lines. Ding's deep positional idea stunned GM Mathew Sadler initially, but soon our commentators made Ding's ideas comprehensible.

That's deep.
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

After a normal queen exchange, Ding once again shocked our commentators with a mysterious rook move, 14. Rdc1, which IM Laura Unuk noted was much more unnatural than the more understandable 14. Re1. Again, though, Ding had a profound positional idea and was looking to slowly reposition his pieces so that he could attack Black's weak pawns. Having said that, he did mention in the press conference that he was not happy with this move and that while it is an idea in similar structures, he did not like it in this particular position. There was also another brilliant alternative, 14. Ne1, which, understandably, the players did not want to go for.

14. Rdc1? Really?
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

By that point, Ding was already almost an hour up on the clock, but the position was relatively simple. While there were some dangerous, subtle threats, Gukesh's 14...Nd4 was quite accurate and, with the weird-looking but also precise 15...Rd6, Gukesh seemed to have found a sturdy setup.

This game will be different.
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

After a few more logical moves that completed both sides' telegraphed plans, there was a lot of intrigue still left in the position, but Ding took the practical decision and repeated moves, ending the game in just 23 moves.

A prelude to an exciting game 3?
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

The press conference underway
Photo: Eng Chin An

Gukesh mentioned that he was satisfied with today's result, while Ding related that going into today's game he was completely fine with a draw.

Some memorable quotes:

GM Gukesh D on coping with pressure because winning would be "huge for Indian chess": "Yeah I mean there's obviously some pressure. For any player playing in a world championship there's a lot of pressure. But I also see it as a privilege that I can represent so many people and my country. It would be a very nice achievement obviously if I win the match. And yeah I'm just focusing on one game at a time and hopefully things go my way."

GM Ding Liren on unwinding: "First I would check the game. Yesterday I received a lot of messages because I won the first game. And after that it was already time to sleep."

A cheerful Ding
Photo: Eng Chin An