WCC 2024 Round 5: A Close Draw in the Exchange French

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 6 starts at 09:00 UTC on Sunday, December 1.

Today's round was covered by our host, IM Laura Unuk, and guests GM Levon Aronian and GM Mathew Sadler. Round 6 will be covered by our host IM Laura Unuk and guest GM Nils Grandelius.

The annotations by GM Maxime Lagarde can be found at the bottom of the article.

The match schedule can be found here.

Stream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d0l5oTSrtag

Match Score

Recap

GM Gukesh D played the solid Exchange French against GM Ding Liren today, and while the game looked equal at many points, the position was very rich and Ding in fact had a small pull. However, after Ding played safely, the game abruptly ended in a draw.

Clips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqwkglpV8Ts

More clips at the bottom of the article.

The French Makes Its Mark

The handshake
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

After winning with 1. d4, the question of the day was whether or not Gukesh would stick with the d-pawn or return to his game 1 choice, 1. e4. As our commentators correctly predicted, Gukesh went for 1. e4 and showed that he was not discouraged by round 1's loss in the French Defense. Gukesh did play more solidly today, however, as he eschewed the Paulsen French he played in round 1 in favor of the Exchange French.

Will the players use the extra queens this game? You already know the answer according to Betteridge's law of headlines.
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

The Exchange French is far from a boring opening, though, and this game, at many critical junctures, proved that there's a lot to play for in these positions. After Unuk told Aronian that some people were saying that the position was boring, Aronian had this to say: "Then you should count every game played by Magnus as an attempt to make a draw." On move 6, Gukesh went for a rare approach with 6. c3, and Ding responded with the critical but committal 6...c4.

Gukesh mentioned in the press conference that it's easier to visualize the position in his head than to look at the board
Photo: Eng Chin An

Another flavorful decision came on move 8 when, instead of the normal 8. O-O, Gukesh went for the forcing 8. Qe2+. After Ding traded queens and recaptured with his king, our commentators were considering a lot of diverse setups for both White and Black, and Ding's and Gukesh's time management for the upcoming moves made a lot of sense in light of such deep analysis.

Ding agrees with Gukesh
Photo: Eng Chin An

Gukesh proceeded to trade rooks and applied pressure with Bg5. After a couple of knights were developed by both sides, a critical point was reached as after White's 15. Bh4, there were a lot of rich lines to calculate. In fact, our commentators spent a lot of time analyzing these positions and coming to the conclusion that 15...Nh5 would make for a very good move for Black.

The positions throughout the game were deceptively simple
Photo: Eng Chin An

Gukesh continued to play critically with 17. g4, posing a question to the knight, which Ding managed to answer correctly by going 17...Nf4. With 18...Nb6 as a follow-up, Ding seemed to be in control of the game as he had the initiative now.

Ding was calculating deeply in game 5
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Gukesh kept the game level, though, up until he went for a risky recapture with 23. dxe5; Gukesh revealed that he had missed how powerful Ding's resulting play would be. Ding responded correctly with 23...Nd3 and it looked like he could apply pressure to the White position.

Gukesh was under some pressure today
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

As it stood, however, the game was basically a simple draw a couple of moves after Ding played 25...Nc4, liquidating into an opposite-colored bishops endgame; another interesting idea was 25...Na4 as it is similar to 25...Nc4 but less forcing. After 25...Nc4, there was still a lot left to play for, though, as Black's passed pawn created some issues for White. Indeed, had Ding found 27...Be6, he would have been pressing. During the press conference, Ding mentioned that he did not appreciate how strong 27...Be6 was and instead went for the "draw offer" with 27...Bc6, which liquidated more pieces and resulted in a draw after some more perfunctory moves.

A premature draw?
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Annotations by GM Maxime Lagarde

Press Conference

A lot of variations were shared in the press conference.
Photo: Eng Chin An

Some memorable quotes:

GM Ding Liren: "It was half a good game." (as Ding was playing well and eventually pressing for the first half and could have played for more in the second half)

GM Gukesh D: "I was pretty confident that I could hold."

Ding's second, Richard Rapport, makes a second appearance
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Prediction

Ding: 37.6%; Gukesh: 62.4%

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

More Clips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCR7oyckLdQ
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PUO_nLfDn2M