Eng Chin An

WCC 2024 Round 6: Drawing the London...

Dec 1, 202422,747 viewsEnglish (US)

Chess Analysis Chess Personalities Over the board Tournament

GM Ding Liren returns to 1.d4, with the two players navigating near-perfectly a less common London transposition and getting into the rest day with a draw.

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 7 starts at 09:00 UTC on Tuesday, December 3.

Today's round was covered by our host, IM Laura Unuk, and guest GM Nils Grandelius. Round 7 will be covered by our host GM Felix Blohberger and guest GM Nils Grandelius.

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

Schedule

Stream

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cF7DHrWGT9E

Match Score

Recap

GM Ding Liren transposed into a London line against GM Gukesh D today. Despite the unbalanced looking position they entered, the two players maintained the equality throughout the game with no one managing to get a significant advantage or provoke a mistake. The game entered an equal two rooks endgame and ended in a draw

Clips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NNQpc4zhAIo

More clips at the bottom of the article.

London in the World Championship Match

The handshake after Ding's arrival to the board
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

The first move of the game, made by Beaumont
Photo: Eng Chin An

After trying 1.e4, getting into an Italian in Game 2 and 1.Nf3, getting into an uncommon line resembling a reverse Queen's Indian Defense in Game 4, neither of which led to a decisive game, GM Ding Liren decided to try 1.d4 against GM Gukesh D for Game 6, with the two players getting into a London System line.

https://lichess.org/study/embed/I2LcDwAT/aONfLzUf#9

While the London System has the reputation of a drawish, often dry, even repetitive opening, one can drive it into unbalanced, uncommon positions if they so desire. In today's game of the World match, Ding did indeed deviate from what we often have in mind as the London. By move 14 the game reached a position seen before only two times, according to the Lichess Masters Database.; One in a game between Aronian Levon and Dominguez Perez in Saint Louis Rapid 2022, and another one, in a correspondence chess game.

Ding deeply concentrated - Or bluffing?
Photo: Eng Chin An

https://lichess.org/study/embed/I2LcDwAT/aONfLzUf#28

In this opposite castles position the lines towards both kings are open, with black having a pawn majority in the kingside and white in the queenside. Now, after 15...Qxf2, Ding has a couple of options to direct the position's nature. One is to try and keep a seemingly healthier pawn structure in the center with Qxe5, but playing with a bishop against a knight and the chances of capitalizing either the pawn structure or the open lines being fairly low, or, going for a more complex setup that may be harder to evaluate especially during the game, with dxe5.

Gukesh deciding his next steps, moments before exchanging the last minor piece
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

By move 20 all the minor pieces were traded, entering an endgame with all the major pieces remaining on the board Up to this point, Ding had spent less than 7 minutes for these 20 moves, compared to his opponent's 50, indicating that everything until now was part of Ding's broader preparation. Like in the games mentioned earlier, Gukesh had the chance to force an early draw in move 26; instead he opted for 26...Qh4, and playing on.

https://lichess.org/study/embed/I2LcDwAT/aONfLzUf#52

In the remainder of the endgame, Ding seemed to be getting a very slight edge, however he couldn't find a way to capitalize it into a greater advantage or a win. After 34.Kc2, allowing the queen exchange, any realistic chance to push for a win was lost; the two rooks endgame was equal and with a bit of accurate play by both sides, the game ended in a draw.