After a rather eventless draw in the 10th game, this game was turbo charged. Gukesh showed intent to surprise Ding, even with a not an entirely theoretical acceptable opening surprise with the White pieces. His opening surprise cost Ding about an hour on the clock, but Ding played perfectly acceptable moves and, in an attempt, to cash in on the time advantage Gukesh played a couple of moves which not only entirely lost his advantage he was also in a very risky position strategically speaking. To classical players it even looked his position was close to hopeless! Clearly a question of nerves. After that Ding starts playing in maximalist style, which he has not done in this match. He had every chance to retain a slight better position without any risk but decided against it. But after a few moves he turned pessimistic after he countered a surprise from Gukesh who fought on valiantly. And the final time pressure phase led to an abrupt collapse. Fatigue is kicking in with there being three games in a row before rest day and all the tension of the score. Apart from this psychology and mind games play a very unique role! We are in for a extremely interesting end of the match, as Ding is capable of recovery, as he showed last time.
1. Nf3 d5 2. c4
Gukesh goes for a sharper Reti than he had done before
2... d4 3. b4 c5 4. e3!?
This perhaps came as a surprise for Ding. The reversed Blumenfeld is not what is seen at top level often, leave alone a match for the World Championship!
4.... Nf6
A natural move after 38 minutes of thought! Hikaru was very very wary of this kind of time management.
5. a3
This was again instantly blitzed out by Gukesh, showing clearly that he was in his preparation. Apparently, this was shown to him by his team of seconds just the previous night. Logically it's a very decent move, trying to play the most flexible move in a reversed Blumenfeld!
5... Bg4
By this moment Ding had spent more than one hour on the clock!
6. exd4 cxd4 7. h3 Bxf3 8. Qxf3 Qc7!?
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9. d3?!
Played only after five minutes of thought while having a lead of one hour on the clock! As Gukesh mentioned he sort of mixed up his lines. But this also showed that he did not understand the position very well and had hoped to play this position over the board only.
9. c5! was clearly the way to continue with Bc4 or Bb5 depending on the situation. Here the move a3 is very useful for White to protect the pawn on b4. The idea is known with reversed colours 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. d5 b5 5. Bg5 exd5 6. cxd5 h6 7. Bxf6 Qxf6 8. Qc2 and here too the critical move is c4!?
9... a5 10. b5?
and this was blitzed out. Compare the position that arises after 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 c5 4. d5 b5 5. Bg5 exd5 6. cxd5 h6 7. Bxf6 Qxf6 8. Qc2 8... d6 9. e4 a6 10. a4
10. bxa5 seems better from positional viewpoint, but clearly this was not his idea.
10... Nbd7
This position is known from similar Blumenfeld in reverse. Black has complete control of dark squares and especially the c5-square. Two knights and bishop guarantee control of dark squares. The fact that White's light square bishop cannot contribute to this fight presents a sad picture.
11. g3
Gukesh thought for one hour over this move! In modern times perhaps the longest think over a move. He mentioned that he initially thought he was better but later would have perhaps understood that his position was really in a spot of bother.
11... Nc5 12. Bg2 Nfd7!?
Ding plays for a maximalist approach! He is playing for win of the d-pawn rather than just continuing with his development and just letting the structure do its thing! Personally, I would have considered this position strategically lost for White.
12... e5 13. O-O Bd6 !? was a very simple option, and as Magnus pointed out Black can have never any sort of problems in these positions, and he can play by hand which would have suited Ding's time situation.
13. O-O Ne5 14. Qf4 Rd8!
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15. Rd1?
Objectively this was a bad move, but the position looks extremely hard to play. The point is he is not able to defend the d3-point and so he apparently had to sacrifice it already with
15. Nd2! Ncxd3 16. Qe4 Nc5 17. b6! hoping that dynamism and open lines should compensate the loss of material.
15... g6 Perhaps the pivotal moment of the game. Ding continues to look for strong tactical ideas quite uncharacteristically, when simple moves would have sufficed.
15... e6!16. Bb2 Qd6! was Peter Leko's suggestion which would have retained all strategic trumps and would have won the game!
(16... Rd7! 17. Bxd4 Ncxd3 18. Qe3 Rxd4 19. Qxd4 Bc5! being black's idea)
16. a4!
from here on Gukesh fought back amazingly.
16... h5 17. b6!
Perhaps this was the idea that Ding missed. White is giving up the b-pawn to create space for his pieces and also to eliminate the knight on c5!
17...Qd6
17... Qb8
and here apparently White has the highly unnatural 18. Qd2!? It remains to be seen whether White had seen this or wanted to continue with (18. Ba3 Nexd3 19. Qf3 Ne5 20. Qe2 and apparently White is completely alright after he keeps giving pawns to activate pieces. Very easy :-)) 18... Nb3 19. Qb2 sacrificing the exchange and creating counterplay where it's even not worse for White apparently.)
18. Ba3 Bh6 19. Bxc5 Qxc5 20. Qe4
Now White got a very nice reversed Benoni
20... Nc6 21. Na3 Rd7 22. Nc2 Qxb6 23. Rab1
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White is actually a pawn down, but his activity and coordination are excellent! Black's bishop on h6 is suddenly hitting thin air. Players were getting into their biggest time trouble ever in the world championship and it was surely not easy for black.
23... Qc7 24. Rb5 O-O 25. Na1
Psychologically an unexpected move for Ding after which he collapses, the more natural move was
25. Rdb1 Rb8 but the knight jumps were hard to handle in time trouble.
25... Rb8
after 25... Nb4 26. Nb3 b6 27. c5 Ding felt that this position was very difficult for him.
26. Nb3 e6 27. Nc5 Re7 28. Rdb1 Qc8
finally, Ding made a tactical blunder in what he perhaps thought was already lost.
28... Nb4 29. Nxb7
White is much better, but not yet winning.
29. Qxc6 1-0
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