Drawing at one's own bidding- Psychology in play - Game six

A long theoretical line, albeit an obscure one happened with Ding returning to his all-time favourite first move of the Queen Pawn. Gukesh settled into a long thought and the general consensus was Ding has put him under pressure both in the position and on the clock. But as it turned out Ding too thought for a long time once he encountered a new move and then offered a repetition of moves. And Gukesh decided to spurn the repetition even though it felt that he was worse objectively. This led to a lot of discussion of psychology and mind games and various other non-chess ideas! I get a feeling that after the loss in the third game, Ding had put a temporary break to going for unclear complications even if it seems to favour him and instead try to outplay Gukesh in simple positions. 

Let us delve in to the game and see, how it turned out. 

 1. d4 

After playing 1. e4 and 1. Nf3 in his first two white games, Ding finally chooses his favorite opening move.

 Nf6 2. Bf4!? 

Ding uses London system again in the 6th game as in the last World Championship. That was one of his best games, he reminisces on those good memories and tries to strike with the White pieces.

2...d5 3. e3 e6 4. Nf3 c5 5. c3 5... Bd6 6. Bb5+

Ding chooses an option which creates a strategic imbalance. Exchange of Bishop for a Knight and playing for dark squares suits Ding very well. He did this well in the 6th game of his match against Nepo! 

There are several possible quieter moves such as 6. Bg3, 6. Nbd2 6. Bd3 etc 

6... Nc6 7. Bxc6+ bxc6 8. Bxd6 Qxd6 9. Qa4!? Not only to put pressure against the doubled pawns, namely c6 and c5, but also to prevent Black's idea of Ba6 

9...O-O 

 9... c4 runs into 10. b3! 

9... cxd4 is more interesting 10. cxd4 O-O 11. O-O (11. Qa3 Qxa3 12. Nxa3 Rb8 13. b3 a5 The Knight on a3 is misplaced, it is far away from the key square c5) 

11... c5 The World Champion had an experience with this position from the Black side. He played and held none other than Magnus Carlsen last year 12. Rc1 c4 (12... cxd4 should also be fine for Black) 13. b3 Bd7 14. Qa5 cxb3 15. axb3 Rfb8 and the game ended in a draw after 37 moves in   Carlsen,M (2859)-Ding,L (2811) Tata Steel-A 85th Wijk aan Zee 2023 

10. Qa3 

10. Nbd2 is the other option, tried by the expert of London- Kamsky

10... Ne4 

10... a5!? is an interesting option too, to gambit the pawn on c5 and capture the a6-f1 diagonal for the light squared bishop. There is a dynamic balance in the fight for respective color complexes.

11. Nfd2 

 11. O-O c4 12. Qxd6 Nxd6 13. b3 with a complex strategic battle  as it happened in Kamsky,G -Sevian,S  Aimchess Rapid Div 2 W Chess.com INT 2023 (3.5) 

11. Nbd2 cxd4 12. Qxd6 Nxd6 13. cxd4 Rb8! 14. b3 Ba6 White has coordination problems!

11... e5! 

Opening the c8-h3 diagonal as well as the third rank, especially the g6-square for the Queen.

 11... Nxd2 12. Nxd2 e5!? 13. Qxc5 (13. dxe5 Qg6) (13. O-O Qg6) 13... Qg6 is another dynamic option where the sacrifice of a pawn opens the position for Black. 

12. Nxe4 dxe4 13. Qxc5 Qg6 14. Nd2!

This was clearly White's idea, to gambit the kingside pawns and take the king to the safety on the other wing.

14.... Qxg2 15. O-O-O Qxf2 16. dxe5 

As it happens in most of modern games, you can find games in every possible rare line. This has also been played before in a correspondence game.

 16...Rb8! Gukesh admitted that he was in preparation till here.

 17. Nc4 Ding played this move also quickly clearly signaling that he is in his preparation and Gukesh went for a very deep think.

17... Be6

The first new move but a natural one. Gukesh took some time to play this.

 17... Qf3! was played in an email game, when a draw was agreed to after 18. Rhf1 Martin-Chronopoulos, email 2022. 

17... Qg2! {Leko had analysed this in 2019 apparently. He checked his notebook and came up with this in the commentary. The point of both Qg2 and Qf3 is to make the Queen like a magnet towards White's Rooks and keep them constantly under attack. This would prevent the freeing Rd2 maneuver apparently.

 18. Rhg1 Qf2 19. Rdf1 Qxh2 and apparently White has nothing better than a draw! 

18. Rd2 Qf3 19. Re1 Bxc4!

The most practical decision. Potentially the knight can be stronger than the bishop, especially with regard to control of dark squares. 

20. Qxc4 Qf5 

This is the first moment where Ding started thinking for a long time, so this move was not expected in his preparations. Apparently stronger was 20... Rbd8! but this looks scary, outwardly   

a) 21. Rxd8 Rxd8 22. e6!? fxe6 23. Qxe6+ Qf7 24. Qxc6 (24. Qxf7+ Kxf7 25. Rf1+ Ke6 26. Rf4 Ke5 27. Rf7 Rd3 28. Rxa7 Rxe3 29. Rxg7 Rd3! or even 29...Re2! Black could be two pawns down, but he is fine because of the active king. This is similar to a line that will happen later on in the game. But these lines are pretty complex!)

 24... Qxa2 25. Qxe4 Qa1+ 26. Qb1 Qa4! with counterplay

b)21. Rd6!? 21... Rde8! Without the rook on d2, Black's queen can attack using the second rank with Qf2 

(Or even 21... h5!? The position remains but both sides can improve their positions, and it seems there is no problem at all for Black.)

22. Rxc6 (22. Qxc6 Qf2!) 22... Rxe5 Compared to the game, Black's pieces are very active and so the counterplay is much better.

 21. Qxc6 

Ding thought for more than 40 minutes on this move. Kramnik and Nakamura were very critical of this time management.

 21... Qxe5 22. Qd5 

After the exchange of Queens, the contention is that White can push his Queenside passed pawns more easily than Black can do so on the kingside.

22.... Qe7 23. Qd6?!

Kramnik was very critical of this move, and perhaps rightly so. He summed up the key to the position quite well. He said whoever controls the d-line in this position is better. He also felt that White should maintain Queens on the board, only Black should try and exchange Queens.

 23. Red1 Both Kramnik and Hikaru thought White could have played until here without much of a thought.

23... Qg5!? 

23... Qxd6! 24. Rxd6 f5 Kramnik felt that this was even more valid, considering that the rook on d6 is placed worser than on d5.

24. Qd5 Qe7 25. Qd6 

Ding thought for a long time and could not find a path to an advantage. So, he decided to repeat moves is what I understand. Looking deeper, rather than criticizing the great players (in this case the world champion! I had a feeling that Ding was not too keen on pushing the pawns in front of his own king. But after due preparation that seems to be the only way to make progress in the position. The position is quite non standard and in Kramnik's opinion top players should show their conceptual skill here, rather than only the calculative ones.

Qg5 26. Qd5 

26... Qh4!?

Initially I was very much amazed at the bravado of youth, which made Gukesh spurn the repetition while being slightly worse or under some pressure at least. My reasoning being White is having a risk-free position, by spurning the draw, Black is only risking losing but not creating the additional chances of winning. But this reasoning is not entirely true as we shall see later on in the game! Purely objectively speaking this is a slightly inferior square for the Queen compared to g5 and hence gives White an easier game.

27. Red1 g6 

 28. Qe5!? 

The natural move in consequence to Black's last move. However, Ding had a stronger move at his disposal.

 28. c4! This was the moment to start pushing the pawns in front of the king, ever so slightly while maintaining the centralized position of the queen. The king has the protection of the rooks and is not really in any danger, and of course the d-file is the key as Kramnik had suggested.

 28... Rbe8 29. Qg3 

29. Qc5!? White Queen can also remain in the centre

 29... Qh5!? 

Once again Black could have exchanged queens but was perhaps worried about the fact that the pawn on g3 might make his passer creation more difficult. Or there was a conscious decision not to exchange queens.

29... Qxg3!? 30. hxg3 Re5! But Black does seem to have counterplay even then for example 31. Rd5 Rxd5 32. Rxd5 f5 33. c4 h5 and apparently Black is quick enough, but this feels hard to find during the game!

 30. Qf4 Qa5 31. a3 

31. Kb1 was Kramnik's suggestion

31... Qb5 32. Rd4 Qe2 33. R1d2 Qf3!

Finally, after all drama, it is Black who offers exchange of Queens.

 34. Kc2?! 

The World Champion was heavily criticized for the move, if he wanted to go to an endgame, perhaps 34.c4 or 34.h4 saves a move was the viewpoint of Kramnik and Hikaru.

 34. Qg5! This move was the strongest apparently. What I found interesting was The Queen on g5 controls Black's Queenside as opposed to h6 square. This was a subtle nuance. Commentators were initially analyzing the possibility of 34. Qh6. Also, as Magnus Carlsen suggested, little moves with the Queen are always hard, the queen being such a long-range piece, its move to one square (either on the diagonal or the file) is easy to miss. I remember Euwe also mentioning this in his writings.

34. Qh6 Qf1+ 35. Kc2 a5! This would not be possible with the White Queen on g5!

 34. Qg3 might make better sense to not to give a passer for Black, but Ding was perhaps worried about h5, but things are hardly clear

 34... Qxf4 35. exf4 f5 

Now Black has a powerful protected passed pawn and is back in the game.

 36. h4 

White wants to prevent Blacks g5 possibility which will lead to a set of connected passed pawns well supported by the Rooks! 

36....e3  

36... Kg7! was the move that all were expecting. Magnus made a very startling comment that if Gukesh had played this move he would have most likely won the game!! Given the way the game has turned, this was perhaps a definite possibility, so to think.

 37. Rd7+ Kh6 38. Rg2 The game remains complex, and it seems that only White has to be careful.

 38. Rxa7?  e3!  (Gukesh admitted to missing this move in the press conference. He had seen 38... Kh5 39. Rg2! h6 40. Rh7 and thought was better for White) However, this position can become very dangerous for White, especially so in the time trouble phase.

39. Re2 Re4!  Black King is going to get active and that might make all the difference perhaps.

 37. Re2 Re7 38. Kd3 Rfe8 39. h5 

39. c4 is slow Kg7 40. b4?! Kh6 41. c5 Kh5! The active King is extremely dangerous in such endgames.

39... gxh5  

39... Kg7 felt natural to Kramnik 40. c4 Kh6 41. hxg6 hxg6 42. Rh2+ =

40. Rd5 h4! 41. Rxf5 Rd7+ 42. Kc2 Kg7 43. Rg2+ 

43. Rh5 Black's idea is to activate the king after Kg6 44. Rxh4 Kf5 and this makes a powerful impression

43. Re5?  Rxe5 44. fxe5 Rd2+! is Blacks idea

 43... Kh8 44. Re2 Kg7 45. Rg2+ Kh8 46. Re2 Kg7 1/2-1/2

A very tense fight which finally ended in a repetition after Black spurned one right after the opening. While objectively it may not have been the best decision, Gukesh mentioned that he knew he was slightly worse, but he would always get counterplay as White needed push the passed pawns in front of his king at some point. Initially I felt that the risk taken by Gukesh could not be rewarded with a victory, so it was not worth it, but as it so happened, he did indeed drum up some chances to even win the game! This means that the full-fledged psychological battle is on. While am no fan of losing objectivity especially at such a high level, it remains to be seen, if Ding would err on the side of caution or Gukesh would err on the side of optimism, in the games to come! The match is reaching a more climactic stage with everything to look forward to. Let us welcome and stay tuned to watch a battle of characters as Korchnoi would have called!

Games discussed in replayable format