WCC 2024 Round 8: A Double Advantage English

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 9 starts at 09:00 UTC on Thursday, December 5.

Today's round was covered by our host, GM Felix Blohberger, and guest GM Thomas Beerdsen. Round 9 will be covered again by our host GM Felix Blohberger and guest GM Thomas Beerdsen.

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

Schedule

Stream

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

Match Score

Recap

GM Ding Liren played the English Opening against GM Gukesh D today and showed that he wanted to fight to get an advantage early on. Gukesh came well-prepared with a very novel opening concept and wrested the opening advantage from Ding. Gukesh had a decent advantage a few moves later, though a difficult one to realize. After Gukesh failed to play the best moves, it was Ding who had a big, also difficult-to-realize advantage; after Ding also did not follow the engine recommendation fully, he lost the advantage and the game ended in a draw.

Clips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R0B3FRx3HxE

More clips at the bottom of the article.

A Highly Complex, Dynamic English Game

The handshake
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

After Ding started off with yet another new move in this World Championship, 1. c4, the English Opening, Gukesh chose a less common line with 2...Bb4. Ding's typical 3. Nd5 move saw Gukesh respond with 3...Be7, another less popular option.

Gukesh in deep thought
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Ding chose the fianchetto to counter Black's plan, and after Ding finished completing his setup, Gukesh chose the engine-approved and very weird-looking 7...f6, solidifying the center and preparing an eventual d5 break.

Gukesh in deeper thought (or more zoomed in thought)
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Ding then chose a familiar plan from game 4 in going for the long fiacnhetto of his dark-squared bishop, attacking d5 and decreasing Black's control over the d5-square. Both sides continued developing their pieces and attacking key squares, but Ding seemed to lose the thread just a little bit, but that only in the eyes of high-depth Stockfish, after he played 13. f4 and recaptured with the rook, where after his pieces looked to be not so well-coordinated.

Swing the rook?
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

The next phase of the game saw the knights getting deployed and redeployed, with Gukesh's knights finding their way to g6 and a6, while Ding's knight gained a central post on d4.

Ding thinking about putting the Lichess horsey on d4
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

It was one more knight dance which perplexed Ding as Gukesh's 20...Nd7, which avoided Nxe5 and the opening up of White's light-squared bishop, prepared the critical b5 pawn break, allowing Black to get powerful rolling pawns on the queenside. Ding indeed seemed to have missed this plan as his 22. Rb1 gave Gukesh an advantage.

Perplexing
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Ding misplaced another piece with 25. Bb2, though again it is not easy to see why such a move is so much worse than the engine-recommended 25. Qd2. It was then Gukesh's turn to make a critical decision after Ding's 26. Bd4: 26...Ndc5 would have avoided much of White's counterplay and kept Black's advantage.

Time to get to work
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

Instead, Gukesh's 26. Nac5, allowed some tactics on the d7-knight connected with Bh3. This tactical nuance enticed Gukesh to play 28. Be6, a mistake which gave Ding an advantage. Indeed, Gukesh's pieces were so awkwardly-placed that he had to lose an exchange. Along the way, though, Ding had a stunning resource with 31. Ne1!!, but it's clear that such moves are almost impossible for humans to find as the difference between such moves and more natural moves requires incredibly evaluation deep in calculation-intense lines.

Ding was back in the game
Photo: Eng Chin An

After Ding picked up an exchange, however, the game was still far from over.

Another draw?
Photo: Maria Emelianova / Chess.com

In fact, just a couple of moves later, Ding started repeating moves and was thus offering a draw, but in a surprising turn of events, Gukesh declined the repetition in a worse position! As it stood, though, there was not much left to play for as White would perhaps risk too much in trying to convert the position, so after such a long and tough battle, a draw was eventually agreed as both sides found a way to go into a pure opposite-colored bishop endgame.

Annotations by GM Maxime Lagarde

Press Conference

The press conference underway
Photo: Eng Chin An

Some memorable quotes:

GM Ding Liren:

"It seems recently every time I play a match, no matter online or over the board, it's a very tense match. Even if I win with a very small margin. So these are my expectations." (on whether he's under or overperforming expectations before the match)

"Today just out of the opening it's kind of torture. But the first game I enjoyed most of the parts." (on if he's having fun playing the world championship)

GM Gukesh D:

"I didn't think I was in so much danger... It was just a misjudgement of the position." (on not repeating moves)

"Playing in the world championship has been my childhood dream so in that sense I'm here where I've always wanted to be. In that sense I'm really happy and enjoying the moment, but obviously the games are very tense and there is pressure. I guess a bit of both." (on if he's having fun playing the world championship)

Ding smiling at the press conference
Photo: Eng Chin An

Prediction

Ding: 45.1%; Gukesh: 54.9%

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

More Clips

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S0ibpiBkM_Y

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVRXqP8hq60