[Dr.AD]

Originally Posted by tortoiseNhare

The lack of interest on Gukesh vs Ding in this thread seems to confirm the observation of the writer of this interesting article:
https://www.espn.in/chess/story/_/id...ding-fide-2024

I do not agree with that. Most chess players are following the games eagerly. Lack of interested in this thread has no correlation with real chess players following the match.

I am part of an international chess group and all of us follow the games live and the games have been surely interesting to watch. The positions right out of opening are crazy! For example, the game 7. Very exciting game! In fact, in was so tense that it was mentally draining and at the end of that long game, it was as if we have read a full long book. The rook maneuvers with Ra1-Ra3-Ra5 etc were quite unorthodox and yet thrilling.

One thing that these games are is unorthodox! Many of the positions (especially with g4 moves) were unthinkable at a WC level in the past. At the same time, both the players are playing moves which often appear to be sub-optimal from traditional chess principles. The classical chess players have been critical of the quality of these games. For example, Kramnik is openly criticizing both the players for what he calls "poor" chess.

So yes the games are unorthodox and often against the principles of classical chess, but noway they are boring! Last three consecutive games, 7, 8 and 9, for example, had plenty of drama even though they all ended in draws. Unfortunately, both the players have heavy opening preparations, but after that, they have shown poorer middlegame and definitely poorer endgame techniques than what is expected at WC level. So yes from the quality point of view, we the chess fans are a bit upset. For example, in Game 9 yesterday, the way Gukesh misjudged the position and gave away his "a" pawn and allowed cd pawn trading is a bit sub-optimal and poor quality for sure.

Neither Gukesh nor Ding have shown the precision to win positions that ought to have been won at this level. And that is where they are drawing biggest criticism from other players at the highest level.

But again none of this means the games are boring.

Coming back to your point about this thread, I personally lost much of interest in this thread because there is hardly any real chess discussed here. I was hoping this thread becomes a thread to analyze moves, positions, tactics, games - the real chess stuff! But somehow that is not happening here.

[Noctis]

Originally Posted by tortoiseNhare

The lack of interest on Gukesh vs Ding in this thread seems to confirm the observation of the writer of this interesting article:
https://www.espn.in/chess/story/_/id...ding-fide-2024

Viewership numbers are very good and there are a lot of discussions going on in chess specific forums.

[Dr.AD]

Wow! Game 11 proved out to be decisive after all, although again because of mistakes rather than any brilliancy, and that is the story of this WC match so far.

In fact, quoting myself from my previous post, because this Game 11 just proved this again!

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

One thing that these games are is unorthodox! Many of the positions (especially with g4 moves) were unthinkable at a WC level in the past. At the same time, both the players are playing moves which often appear to be sub-optimal from traditional chess principles.

So yes the games are unorthodox and often against the principles of classical chess, but noway they are boring! .

This Game 11 very unorthodox again, with both players seriously struggling in completing their development. Both players played moves that were against the classical principles of chess, and ended up in position that neither the other human SuperGMs nor the machines liked. And played sub-optimal moves.

The game started with 1. Nf3 d5 2. c4. And Now Ding made a very surprising move of 2. ... d4 instead of the calmer 2. ... e6 which was more in his style.

And then Gukesh brought out the surprise of the match, 3. b4. And after 3. ... c5 came another move that surprised Ding, 4. e3!

Kudos to Gukesh and his team for preparing this surprise line that caught Ding by so much surprise that he spent more than 40 minutes on his next move. That is unheard of in the top level chess, leave alone World Championship match. The World Champion spending 40 minutes on move 4! Wow. Unbelievable stuff.

In fact, Ding spent another 20 minutes for 5. ... Bg4, and by the time he had played 5 moves, he had already spent more than 1 hour (out of his 2 hours) of time. Really dramatic start.

A few moves later the following position was reached which looked very promising for Gukesh and he had one hour more than Ding on clock! Really a dream stuff here for Gukesh:

Position after 8. ... Qc7 where white is better and has 1 hour and 8 minutes more on clock! (notice the remaining times):


Here, 9. c5 looked like the most promising move. I was following live on Chess24 and there both the commentators, GM Leko and GM Giri were explaining how good 9. c5 was and were showing many lines which all looked very promising for White.

But then, to everyone's surprise, Gukesh played 9. d3 followed by 10, b5, both moves played surprising fast (looked like he was trying for psychological tricks rather than really calculate his own moves; he went for superfast moves to put Ding under more psychological stress given that he was already under tremendous time pressure). And both these moves were neither liked by top SuperGMS nor by the engines.

And once Gukesh realized that he had lost that easy advantage, it was his turn to go into a very long think!

Now Gukesh took an hour to play 11. g3 after playing the previous two moves unrealistically fast and losing a lot of advantage.

Soon we reached this position below following a dubious 15. Rd1 by Gukesh:

How tables turned! Gukesh is in much worse position now, and had also lost all his time advantage:


Now Gukesh was in serious trouble. His queen of f4 is misplaced, his is lacking in development, he has no clear plans whatsoever. And on the other hand, with e6- Bd6 kind of follow-up, Black is totally fine. Black knight on C5 is a superpower, and it rules the game. At this point, GM Giri was saying Gukesh will lose this game, and it looked all gloomy for Gukesh.

Remember that he had also squandered off all the time advantage. It looked sad on all fronts. Tables had turned big time!

But then came another bad move by Ding which again changed everything. Ding played 15. ... g6? which shocked everyone including Leko and Giri (whom I was listening to live). Apparently Ding tried the cheapo tactics of h5 Bh6 line, but miscalculated the line after White gets in a4 and Ba3.

A bad judgement by Ding in 15. ... g6 followed by now precise play by Gukesh with 16. a4 followed by nicely timed 17. b6 and 18. Ba3 moves, and soon it was again Gukesh that had a great position.

Ding had completely misplayed the position now (his g6, h5, Bh6 plan totally backfired and helped White solve all his own problems), and now Ding was under very heavy pressure.

These are the moments when a World Championship comes to a boiling point, from mental pressure point of view! Scores equal after 10 rounds, both players under pressure, this game already gone up and down, both players missed chances, and now Ding under extreme pressure. He was still not lost! Surely he was worse, but he could have fought on. Everyone expected more resistance from Ding here.

However, under that huge pressure, he totally collapsed! He had a brain fade, and played 28. ... Qc7-c8?? . One of the biggest blunders in the history of World Championships!



And then he resigned after 29. Qxc6. 1-0!

A very sudden and shocking end to a game that was sun-optimal but exciting at the same time!

Sad that a World Championship game ended in a blunder and not in a brilliancy!

By the way, previously too, Ding has shown this tendency to collapse under such immense pressure. Earlier this year, In Norway Round 6 against Carlsen, he played that 29. ... Rb2?? (allowing a mate in 2 starting with 30. Qxh7+) that was a terrible blunder at the highest level. Same story repeated today.

Congratulations to Gukesh on this very important win! After the initial tense drama, and then after Ding's mistake of 15. ... g6?, Gukesh played very precisely from that point onward in a very tense and critical position. Kudos to Gukesh and his team from a brilliant opening prep that out-prepared Ding and his team, and after some back and forth drama, final round of precise play by Gukesh delivered the win!

Now Gukesh leads by 6-5 after 11 games, with 3 more games to go! Tomorrow's game where Ding is White is very crucial for Ding now. Ding has two Whites in the remaining three games. However, so far Gukesh has got comfortable draws in games when he was Black. Therefore, Ding will have to bring on some surprise preparation tomorrow from White side if he has to put Gukesh in any kind of trouble now. Really exciting rounds ahead and looking forward to the next games!

[DigitalOne]

Originally Posted by Dr.AD

However, under that huge pressure, he totally collapsed! He had a brain fade, and played 28. ... Qc7-c8?? . One of the biggest blunders in the history of World Championships!


And then he resigned after 29. Qxc6. 1-0!

A very sudden and shocking end to a game that was sun-optimal but exciting at the same time!

Ding Liren's blunder and Gukesh's aggressive body language is a must see.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=prpFaiQ8bJM

It would be very difficult for Ding Liren to comeback after this devastating loss, given his mental health issues that he has reportedly been facing over the last year.

I believe we are on the verge of an Indian teen becoming the world champion. Fingers crossed!

[Laxmistart]

Wonderful performance and composure by Gukesh, but it is far from over! Let's keep our hopes high!!

[PreludeSH]

Been following this from start. I am happy that Gukesh is leading. But the overall championship is not that great. Looks like pressure is getting to them. Kind of limited overs cricket kind of mistakes in Chess

[Dr.AD]

Wow! What an amazing comeback by Ding today in Game 12! We have been complaining about poor quality of the games before this round. We have been also complaining about the two players not being able to continue precisely and convert their advantages.

Today, finally, Ding played "the perfect game" and in a must-win situation, won Game 12! Amazing game! He totally outplayed Gukesh today. He outplayed Gukesh in the opening and came out with a small but tangible advantage in the opening, and then played the perfect game to build upon that advantage precisely and totally crushed Gukesh in the end.

Ding's handling of the center and then then the precise maneuvering with Qc3-Qc2 was sublime! This was the game that deserved World Championship tag! Finally a fantastic game that we expect at this level of Chess.

Yesterday Ding looked like totally broken down. And yet today he came back so well and played a game that will go down in the history of chess of as one of the model games! What a comeback and what a twist in this match again! Amazing drama.

While Ding came back and played like a true World Champion (GM Leko commenting on the game said Ding's play today was at about 3000 rating! that amazing!), Gukesh played quite ordinary game today. He misplaced his pieces out of the opening and then could not recover at all. He could not even offer any resistance. Sad that he folded so straight in the middlegame. Gukesh is of course a great player and no doubt an amazing tactician, but something surely seems to be broken in his system. Somehow he is not able to demonstrate any brilliancy either in his preparation or over the board play that we expected from him at the highest level of chess.

Also, he admitted that today's line was part of his preparation but somehow he could not recollect all the details. That is quite shocking to hear! Yesterday also, in Game 11, he mixed up his lines and ended up playing d3 and b5 instead of c5. Today while commenting on the Game, GM Anish Giri said that Gukesh seems to have trouble recollecting his own preparation, and unfortunately that seems to have indeed come true. Sad loss for Gukesh.

Gukesh's moves like 20. ... Bf6 and then 22. ... Bg5 were quite poor, and definitely not expected at his level. 26. ... Qd7 was also worse than 26. ... Na6 that Ding said he was expecting and surely offers more resistance.

And exactly opposite of this, Ding's decision of going for 26. d5 instead of the more obvious 26. Na7 was amazing! He just went for the kill with 26. d5!

Gukesh is a way better player than this , but something is surely broken. Sad loss for Gukesh.

So while it is sad and unfortunate that Gukesh had to be on the losing side today, at least from a true chess fan's perspective, we got to see a brilliant game from Ding today and finally a game that fits in the WC level! Amazing game by Ding!

Hope Gukesh comes back strong out of this and is still able to win this match. He is definitely a great player and no doubt much better than what we have seen in this match. As a Gukesh fan, and fan of the entire Indian chess system, I am pained to see his play in this match so far. I am seriously hoping he comes back very strong.

All the best to Gukesh and eagerly looking forward to the next two games!

[Dr.AD]

This is a good video with detailed discussions and analysis of Game 12. Both Carlsen and Nakamura express surprise over the quality of play from Gukesh in this game. As Carlsen said, this game felt like from previous eras when there was a significant gap in the playing strengths of the two players, and not from the modern era where the two players have very similar playing strengths. In this Game 12, one player just played far superior than the other player and totally outplayed the other player.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=feVZ5Bpf2Ao

Anyways, the next two games are going to be exciting! All the best to Gukesh and hope he comes back strong tomorrow, after a rest day today!

[McLaren Rulez]

Really enjoying ChessBase India's coverage of the match on YouTube. Great commentary from Sagar and co, good audience and amazing lineup of video guests including Vishy Anand, Levy (GothamChess) and others.

[srvm]

Congratulations to Gukesh, the youngest-ever World Champion in chess history

[RaghuVis]

Originally Posted by srvm

Congratulations to Gukesh, the youngest-ever World Champion in chess history

I am not a huge chess fan, as I cannot play that well, but I could not stop shedding a tear when I saw him cry after winning. What a moment for Him, For India and the world to get their youngest-ever world champion!

PS: My god, what a champion. He talks about his opposition first thing. So Humble, making us cry more

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted by srvm

Congratulations to Gukesh, the youngest-ever World Champion in chess history

And only the second Indian ever to win the title!

With the current pool of talent, we can hope for a few more titles to come our way in the near future.

Heartiest congratulations to Gukesh; a moment of immense pride for all of us.

[Dr.AD]

Amazing stuff! Heartiest Congratulations to Gukesh!! Amazing that we have the youngest World Champion in the history of the game, with 18 years Gukesh being that one. Unbelievable achievement

It was nerve-wrecking to see Ding blundering with 55 Rf2. This will go down as one of the most discussed blunders in the history of the game.

But amazing play by Gukesh. He played in the style of Carlsen. With a very tiny advantage in the endgame, he kept on pushing and grinding the opponent and played perfect endgame at the most critical phase of the match!

Even beyond his highest achievement on the board, he won my heart with his speech in the press conference after the match. He talked about his opponent first, and with tears in his eyes, praised his opponent for all his achievements! Gukesh knew Ding gave it away, the months of hard work all undone, with that 55. Rf2 and he knew how Ding would be feeling. His speech was the most magnanimous speech from any world championship match! And that coming from the 18 years old boy who just became the youngest world champion in the history! Unbelievable maturity of mind. The most dramatic and also emotional moment in the modern chess history that I can recall.

Magical stuff. The most magical times for Indian chess!! Congratulations to Gukesh to all chess fans!

[PreludeSH]

Great Achievement. For an 18 year old to achieve this in chess is monumental. The youngest champion hitherto was 22 years old and that speaks about his maturity at his young age.

[AtheK]

What a Player, history made, seeing how Gary got there at age of 22 and our boy did it at age of 18. Words fall short of such achievements!!

Hearty Congratulations Gukesh, you make the country Proud!!