Under the pressure of the ticking clock! Game -3

"The aim of opening preparation is to get a playable position in the middlegame" - Lajos Portisch 

World Champion Ding Liren predicted that Gukesh would come with all guns blazing, and that the third game would be a big fight and wasn't he spot on! There were lot of interesting moments which showed some of the strong as well as weak points of both the players.

The game started with

1.d4!

Once again, a surprise on the first move, Gukesh shows he is flexible enough to try and change on the first move itself. This is a modern trend, almost a kind of hit and run strategy rather than a global one. Ding did it well in his last year's match against Nepo and perhaps is doing it here too, which will be clearer in the coming games. But preparing one opening strongly for a championship and sticking to it, seems to have changed a little bit, especially with these two players.

1....Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3.c4 e6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Nc3

Not the most convincing or ambitious approach against the Queens Gambit declined, but as Magnus pointed out White is choosing this not out of a search for objective advantage, but just to get a playable position. The main line or the Semi Tarrasch christened as the Berlin against 1.d4 is apparently quite annoying for top players to face in the ephemeral search for an opening advantage. So as a tradeoff, the new aim is actually to a playable position in the postmodern information age! One has to agree that Lajos Portisch was a prophet! His statement seems even more valid than when he spelt it out more than half a century ago. For the record the d4 Berlin starts with these moves 4. Nc3 c5 5.cd5 cd4!

5....c6 6. Qc2 g6 7. h3!?

A very rare move which was employed by Kramnik after he has retired from top level chess. It is still interesting to see him setting the trend for the direction of openings in World Championships, this was never a surprise before as he was a trendsetter, but even a retired Kramnik's games could spark the opening interest of Gukesh and Gajewski says a great deal about the skill of Kramnik in this regard!

7.... Bf5 8. Qb3 Qb6 9. g4!? Qxb3 10. axb3 Bc2!

Ding chooses the most ambitious continuation, to show that the isolated doubled pawns are weak. He does not choose a simpler, though slightly more passive continuation like 10...Be6

11.Bf4! h5

Black takes the chance to open and capture the h-file. But interestingly Kramnik felt this was not much of an improvement from Black's point of view. On the contrary it can even be useful to White! Well, this is debatable but shows the beauty of chess when each player perceives the position in his own way.

12.Rg1 hxg4 13. hxg4 Nbd7!

13...Bxb3 would run into 14. Nd2! but Ding take his time and plays a useful move maintaining all options in the position and varies from an earlier game Kramnik-Arjun 2023 went that went 13...Bxb3 and Kramnik got a big advantage which he did not manage to convert in that rapid game.

14. Nd2 Rg8!

apparently, the strongest move, Ding had already spent more than one hour on the clock by this time. After more than half an hour thought on his previous move, he played this very quickly. The subtle idea is to prepare g5, to create an escape square for the bishop on c2. for example, 15. Rc1 g5 16. Be3 Be4! This was discussed by Judit Polgar in her commentary and this kind of equalizes the position. The bishop pair does not count for much in these positions where opponent's knights have stable squares.

15.g5!?

A very impactful moment, which lead to some criticism from various onlookers online as well some really strong players! Firsly, apparently the computer evaluation drops for White after this and the computer even prefers Black. But this is not a serious consideration from my point of view, but Magnus considered this to be a strategic mistake as it weakens the f5 square and gives the bishop on c2 a way out. This is a very interesting observation from not only one of the all-time greats but also one who has the best positional intuition by far in modern times! 

While discussing his game against Moiseenko from Jakarta 2013 Nigel Short mentioned that the modern players do not think twice about pushing pawns up the board and leaving behind a weaknesses (not in a positive sense!) and Jan Timman also discussed square weakness concept by modern Grandmasters in one of his articles in the New in chess magazine. Gukesh was aggressive as White in both games 1 and 3 and did not back away from pushing pawns, even if it meant weakening some squares. He concretely evaluates a position based on his calculation would be the general perception here!

Caruana on the other hand considered this to be a very reasonable practical decision even though it might not be objectively the best, his reason being Gukesh had seen the other lines, but was not happy to just maintain equality with normal continuations. So, he decided on the text move with full understanding of the evaluation and the risk entailed (if at all there was one!)

 Vladimir Kramnik felt that though it might be strategically risky, this was quite acceptable given the intent behind White to take over the initiative in a practical game. 

From my observation, while the objective evaluation was perhaps totally different, both Gukesh and Ding felt during the game that it was a strong continuation and the way to go for White. White gains tempi and prepares a central expansion with f3-e4 and all this with a sizeable lead on the clock. The practical result during the game was, Ding was put under some sort of pressure already, and in the end that is what counted for the result on this day! Human perception in chess is situation specific and has rules of its own, surely it is not so cold blooded as a computer or even a sober evaluation at the laboratory at a postmortem.

15.... Nh5 16. Bh2 Rh8 17.f3 Ng7 18. Bg3

and after a few moves this critical position was reached. At this point Ding had 31 minutes for the remaining 22 moves to reach move 40. He had every reason to accelerate his moves so as to not fall in an acute time trouble, but this was a very unfortunate moment for him to play a quick move. The most surprising part is, did he simply miss that White was threatening to trap the bishop with e4 on the next move? That too given that White's central idea in this variation seems to be around that mainly. Here Black could have played 18...Be7! 19.Bf2 Bf5 20.e4 Be6 and the position is better for Black (kind of surprisingly for me) I was thinking about a possibility of 18...Bf5 19.e4 Be6 just to save the bishop which is treading dangerously in enemy territory and hoping to remain solid. Apparently, a deeper look shows that the evaluation even favours Black, but even without knowing this (assuming one thinks this position is slightly better for White too) Black can choose this in a practical game putting the ball back in White's court to show an advantage, while remaining with a good defensive setup. Carlsen felt that White has overextended his pawns, and Black has no weakness which means that only White might have reason to worry and not black- this is of course much closer to the truth, but as everyone else agrees, from a practical point of view, just bringing the bishop back into safety would have suited Ding's game and match situation perfectly! Instead, Ding chose

18....Rh5?

Once again there are 2 scenarios in which this could have happened, firstly he could have simply missed Gukesh's next move - this is what Caruana thinks, and in that case it's a big mistake.

Secondly, he does not like the position after 18...Bf5 19.e4 Be6, believing that White has gained lot of time and instead goes for positions with material imbalance, in the hope for counterplay. Both Gukesh and Ding believed White's position to be better was the impression we get from the press conference. And this is not as surprising as viewers might tend to think. Human perception is not easily defined in terms of numerical evaluations of the computer :-)

19.e4! 

Gukesh played this after eleven minutes of thought, having a sizeable advantage in time. But this was essentially the only direction that White was obliged to go

19...dxe4?!

Objectively this was also an inaccuracy. Judit felt 19...Ne6 directly was better. There are some lines in which Black wins both the f3 and e4 pawns as a compensation for the lost piece. But the lines are complex, and Ding had 22 minutes on the clock after he made the 19th move. This is wonderful position for analysts to examine the inexhaustible resources in chess, but under the pressure of clock, it is clear that Black is going downhill as the game showed.

20. fxe4 Ne6 21 Rc1 Nxd4 22. Bf2 Bg7 23. Ne2!

This was the moment that earned Gukesh a lot of praise from the commentators, Judit felt he had to fight this if he had to win this game and it was not easy, but for someone who wants to become a World Champion it was an absolute must that he digs in deep and ends up delivering. Gukesh didn't disappoint one bit and showed excellent skills in terms of accuracy in the conversion phase. Ding admitted in the press conference that he missed this move (which was what many commentators felt too including Judit and Kramnik) In that case he wrongly evaluated the compensation for the piece, and he was fighting a downhill battle both in terms of the clock and the position. Though one has to say this was not an easy move to see from afar! instead of this 22. Bxd4? would give up the dark squared bishop and this would end up later losing g5 and making White's task of winning this extremely hard.

23... Nxb3 24. Rxc2 Nxd2 25. Kxd2

Kramnik felt that he would have taken 25. Rxd2 instead to keep a better coordination but after 25...Ne5 26. Rg3 Rxg5 Black wins another pawn, and he would not be sure of a win, but he would still try. Gukesh plays more ambitiously holding on to material and hoping to set right coordination issues as and when he can.

25.... Ne5

A very natural move which was not commented upon by commentators other than Kramnik. He suggested the very interesting 24... a5! with the the idea of exchanging the a-pawn soon and also using the a5-square for the rook to attack White's weakness on g5! An excellent resource, but Ding needed quite some time on the clock if he needed to find this

26. Nd4

Kramnik once again felt 26. Rg3 was the right way, but Caruana and others felt that what Gukesh did was the best to retain control. Just shows us once again how complex these positions are, even though White is up a piece, a win is by no means a stroll in the park here.

26...Rd8 27. Ke2! Rh2 28. Bg2!

Here Gukesh was in his element, he was playing quickly and confidently and slowly progressing towards converting his extra material. 27.Rg2 Rh3! was not as clear as Judit showed

28...a6 29. b3 Rd7 30. Rcc1!

The way White improves the coordination of his pieces is a treat to watch and learn

30...Ke7 31. Rcd1 Ke8 

Caruana pointed out that Ding had smiled in despair at this moment, seeing that he could only move his king back and forth in the position.

32.Bg3 Rh5 33. Nf3! Nxf3 34. Kxf3 Bd4

At this point white was executing all his moves with perfect composure and thought and unfortunately for Black he had no time left and was blitzing out the moves in absolute despair.

35 Rh1 Rxg5 36. Bh3 f5 37. Bf4! Rh5

Ding lost on time while making this move.

Gukesh had the killer blow 38. Bxf5! ready in any case, so White would have won the game nevertheless even if it were not for the clock!

The first victory of the challenger over the champion in a class game ever in his life, and what a moment to do this! (Similar to Fischer's first victory against Spassky in game 3 with a Benoni in the historic 1972 match)

He stuck to his strengths of good calculation and conversion in the technical phase. His win over Ding's countryman Wei Yi from the recent Olympiad also comes to mind in this regard. Scores are tied at 1.5 points each side and the match is absolutely even now, although the momentum seems to have swung in favour of Gukesh right now. But Ding is never to be underestimated, he came back from behind no less than three times in his last match against Nepo where he became the world champion.

 Ding played in a totally different attitude from the safety seeking game two to quite a daring game 3. This has sparked great interest among chess fans world over. This definitely promises to be an exciting match, with 2 gladiators giving their best and promising a spectacle!

To celebrate Gukesh's first win over the World Champion, the following poem arose, especially after seeing the excitement among the Indian fans at his victory after this game.

டிங்கடங்க வாடவாட வேகவேக நகர்வுக

டொங்கவங்க மாயமாய வேழவீழ விறுதியி

னங்கடங்க வீரவேறு தீரநேர மாண்டதாற்

பொங்கநங்க ணாடுமாடு வெற்றிபற்றி களிப்பிலே

#கலிவிருத்தம்

சீர் பிரித்து 

டிங்கு அடங்க வாட ஆட ஏக வேக நகர்வுகள்

தொங்க அங்கம் மாயம் ஆய வேழம் வீழ இறுதியில்

நங்கள் தங்க வீர ஏறு தீர நேரம் ஆண்டதால்

பொங்க நங்கள் நாடும் ஆடு வெற்றி பற்றி களிப்பிலே 

The Gold winning heroic cub (Gukesh) subdued and ruled over Ding with singular and speedy moves which led to win of material as if by magic and at the final moment the Rook slipped down when the time ran out (for the champion), This was an inspiration for our country to celebrate this first victory of his in exuberance!

A detailed analysis of the game was given at chess.com by GM Rafael Leitao which i give the link to below.

Rafael Leitaos detailed analysis of the game on chess.com

Also, thanks to Kramnik's YouTube channel, the recap at take take take channel where Magnus commented, C-Squared podcast channel where Caruana commented and the chess24 channel where Judit and Hess commented. Their comments were incorporated and mentioned in the article.