WCC 2024 Round 3: Gukesh Bounces Back After Trapping a Bishop

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 4 starts at 09:00 UTC on Friday, November 29.

Today's round was covered by our hosts, GM Felix Blohberger and IM Laura Unuk, and guest GM Levon Aronian. Round 4 will be covered by our two hosts with GM Levon Aronian, 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=KBaYC0iTlDw

Recap

An early exchange in the Queen's Gambit Declined saw GM Ding Liren going for a critical line with 10...Bc2, a move that showed that Ding was ready to fight. GM Gukesh D was doing well until he played 15. g5, after which Ding was slightly better. Ding ended up trapping his own bishop with 18...Rh5, though, and Gukesh converted brilliantly after that as Ding's time trouble did not allow him to put up the stiffest resistance.

Clips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hm-i9rZ3Bnk

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

More clips at the bottom of the article.

Gukesh Bounces Back

Olivier Lim moves Gukesh's e-pawn.
Photo: Eng Chin An

GM Gukesh D changed gears today as he started with 1. d4 instead of round 1's 1. e4. GM Ding Liren responded symmetrically and soon enough Gukesh followed in Magnus Carlsen's footsteps and opted for an exchange variation with Qc2, which our guest commentator GM Levon Aronian mentioned Carlsen has been known to play.

Time to play like Carlsen
Photo: Eng Chin An

Ding played 6...g6, one of the main approaches of handling this position, and Gukesh reacted with 7. h3, a very rare move whose main purpose is to prepare the g4 push. From then on, Ding kept spending a lot of time on each move as he had many options, while Gukesh played much more quickly and put pressure on the clock. After about 20 minutes of thought, Ding went for a queen exchange with 8...Qb6 and 9...Qxb3.

Will Ding's time trouble affect his results in this match?
Photo: Eng Chin An

Gukesh followed up logically with 9. g4 and after the queens were swapped, Ding played the critical move in the position, 10...Bc2, which Aronian noted was a very risky and surprising decision. After some normal developing moves and the opening up of the h-file, Ding spent 30 minutes on 13...Nbd7, an idea which GM Felix Blohberger spotted and eventually convinced Aronian of its merits.

The match is providing a lot of intrigue.
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Gukesh went with 14. Nd2, protecting the b3-pawn, preparing the e4 pawn push further, and threatening to eventually trap Black's light-squared bishop. After the accurate 14...Rg8, which prepared the counterattacking g5 to open up the diagonal for the light-squared bishop, Gukesh responded with a logical but positionally questionable decision, 15. g5, which Aronian did not particularly like. The players during the press conference, though, did not think that 15. g5 was a mistake at all, and Gukesh in fact already liked his position after 15. g5.

Gukesh was enjoying his position.
Photo: Eng Chin An

As more sensible moves were played, Ding had a slight advantage and was repositioning his pieces well. Disaster struck on move 18, though, as Ding played 18...Rh5, which our three commentators were rather surprised by. Ding's idea of attacking the g-pawn made sense, of course, but the more simple and natural 18...Be7 was a better way of proceeding. Ding revealed in the press conference that he had calculated a long, forced line which did not appeal to him; it turned out that his calculation was accurate, but his evaluation of the resulting position was incorrect. After 18...Rh5, a piece trap was on the cards!

Our own Director of Operations Theo Wait asked Ding about this particular moment.

Blunder?
Photo: Eng Chin An

Gukesh exploited Ding's move quite well with 19. e4, trapping Black's bishop, gaining central space, and preparing to develop. By that point, Ding had to pull the breaks and sacrifice a piece, though matters were not as easy as the engine would make one believe as Ding had two pawns for the piece and a stable(-ish) position. As Aronian noted, there would be a long road ahead for Gukesh to convert this position. After the piece was picked up, it was time to see if Ding would be able to hold the position or at least make Gukesh's task much harder than it should be.

Gukesh calculated superbly today.
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

With Ding down so much time on the clock, it was quite difficult to imagine that he would be able to handle all the different intricacies and tactical tricks in the position. Moreover, Gukesh's task was rather simple, especially for a player of his caliber, as 27. Ke2, 28. Bg2, and 29. b3 were all slow, improving moves which obviously could only help White. Gukesh thus did not need to use his superb calculation skills too much.

Gukesh kept calm.
Photo: Eng Chin An

Meanwhile, Ding had to hope that moving his king back and forth would not hurt his position too much.

Mirror, mirror on the wall, who will win the game after all?
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

With one minute on the clock, defending the position would have been a tall order, and as Gukesh traded more pieces, Ding did not find the engine-best move, which was still losing long-term in any case, and lost on time in a losing position.

A well-played game by Gukesh and a tough loss for Ding.
Photo: Eng Chin An

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

Some memorable quotes:

GM Gukesh D: "I always knew that once I settle I will get back and return."

GM Ding Liren on what he does to bounce back: "It's just the position itself. When I think... If I have a chance in the game to press for the win."

Gukesh was visibly happy.
Photo: Eng Chin An

Prediction

Ding: 32.6%; Gukesh: 67.4%

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

More Clips

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

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q4cSNKmk4UU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Un19dtvVLeg

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