FIDE World Cup Finals: Ding Liren's immaculate opening preparation

Magnificient settings

The playing hall is one of the best that I have seen. With lot of space for the spectators and two LED televisions, there were many people who turned up to see the match. For the players too this was a new feeling. For nearly twenty days they were playing in the Hualing Hotel which had hardly any spectators. And now all of a sudden there were nearly hundred people sitting in the stands patiently following the match. Ding Liren said that the crowd motivated him to show his best chess in the finals, while for Aronian, so many people meant that there was more repsonsibility.

The finals is taking place in Hotel Biltmore. As Levon Aronian put it in his interview with Karlovich, "It's nice to be back in Tbilisi!" | Photo: Millenium Hotels

By contrast the Hualing hotel, situated on the outskirts of Tbilisi, was as if we were living in no man's land! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The playing hall is located on the second floor of the Biltmore Hotel | Photo: Amruta Mokal

This video gives you the feel of what it is like at the Biltmore Hotel — the press room, commentary room. We give you a full tour of the playing hall, commentary room, press room and you can enjoy the first few minutes of the game

The table and chair on which the finals are being played is nearly 40 years old | Photo: Amruta Mokal

If you look closely at the table you will notice some scratches on it, which shows that this is not brand new. Also from the design of the chairs it is clear that we are talking about something made many years ago. In fact the entire set of table and chair was made nearly 40 years ago. According to Zurab Azmaiparashvili, "During the period of Gaprindashvili and later Chiburdandidze eight such sets of table and chairs were made for the World Champinship Matches. Five sets were used by Gaprindashvili, Chiburdanidze, Alexandria, Ioseliani in their matches. This is the sixth one. Hence, although it is 40 years old, it is unused!

Georgia’s Minister of Sport and Youth Affairs Tariel Khechikashvili made the first move for Aronian: 1.c4 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

The games had begun, but there was still soft music being played in the background. Aronian was amused and after the game said that the music was putting him in a relaxing mood! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Ding Liren also got a bit distracted by the music and asked the arbiter to shut it down. After ten minutes from the start of the game the music was gone. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Aronian tried to put pressure on his opponent by circling around the board

Game 1 explained in depth:

Aronian began with the move 1.c4 and Ding replied with the classical 1...Nf6 followed by 2...e6.

The Mikenas variation is just the kind of line that suits Levon Aronian perfectly. It leads to free flowing play and the Armenian fares the best when the pawn structure is fluid, so that he can get his creativity into action. However, the problem with playing Ding is that the Chinese is just so well prepared.

This move has been played only twice before. Once by Nakamura against Topalov in a blitz game at the Grand Chess Tour event in Paris. The other one was a game by Ju Wenjun at the Saint Louis Fall-A against Shimanov. Judging from Ding Liren's openings it seems like he is having a close look at the games of Ju Wenjun. Especially because he played 6.b3!? against Wesley So in the Catalan which is Wenjun's main weapon.

Aronian was not so sure how to respond to the move d5-d4. He continued in normal style, but this meant that his opponent equalized without any difficulties.

Ding Liren showed some fantastic opening preparation in the first game of the finals | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Black's plan was pretty simple. He moved his king to d7, bishop to e7, the rook from a8 went to f8, and Ding made the typical undermining move g7-g5.  White really couldn't do much about Black's play and it seemed to be going really well for the Chinese player. His only problem was finding a good square for the knight on c6.

But the move b5 had its own drawbacks. It allowed White the option to break with the move f4-f5. This was the most critical moment of the game. Had Aronian played this move he would have been entitled to at least a small edge. It was not that he hadn't seen the move, but he felt that Black should have enough counterlpay. So he did not go for f5. For all the analysis related to that move check the ChessBase game viewer below.

Once f4-f5 was not played, Black had nothing much to worry about and the game ended in a draw.

After the game ended we were able to get the thoughts of both the players on what had just happened:

Ding talks about his opening preparation, new settings, feeling cold in the new venue and his opponent Aronian

Underestimating his opponent was the reason why Levon Aronian has a -3 score against Ding Liren. This time he has much more respect for his opponent.

ECU president Zurab Azmaiparashvili, Chairman of the Anti-Cheating Commission Israel Gelfer, Continental President for Americas Jorge Vega, and FIDE Vice President D.V. Sundar | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Two-time World Championship finalist Nana Ioseliani visited the press area | Photo: Amruta Mokal

At some point the press area had come alive with a lot of strong players discussing the position. Although the discussion and arguments were in Georgian/Russian language, it all seemed very interesting, mainly because everyone had an opinion about the position. Along with Nana Ioseliani there was also Grandmaster Sosonko, Nona Gaprindashvili and Baadur Jobava's brother Beglar. Check out this video to know how the atmosphere was in the press centre.

The scene in the press room during the game

Levon Aronian had a lot of fans waiting for him after the game ended. Here you can see a girl draped with the Armenian flag taking a selfie with him. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Levon Aronian came in these shoes that caught everyone's notice. When asked about them he said, "It's a present from Arianne. I like to wear things that she gifts me." | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Ding Liren has been pretty much unforgiving with the white pieces at the World Cup. Levon Aronian will have his task cut out. He has to ensure that he gets a fighting position out of the opening if he has any chances to beat his Chinese opponent. With his experience of playing at the highest level Levon's middlegame skills are surely a tad better than Ding's. However, the opening plays a crucial role. Only if the Chinese player is taken out of his comfort zone than Aronian has a chance to beat him. If Ding gets a risk free position with a small edge like he did against Wang Hao, Richard Rapport and Wesley So, he is just too good in such technical positions.

Format of the finals

The finals of the World Cup 2017 has a different format from the other rounds. Instead of the usual two classical games, we will witness four. And in case of a 2-2 tie, the match will go into the tiebreaks on September 27th. Levon Aronian has the white pieces in game one. The winner takes home USD 120,000 (net 96,000) and the runner-up receives 80,000 (net 64,000). 

Make your predictions

A word of caution: Ding Liren after his win against Wesley So told us that he saw the predictions of his semi-final match and was not pleased to notice only 25% of people thought he could win! Of course, the Chinese player proved himself by playing some fantastic chess. Noting his form in this tournament and his past record against the Armenian grandmaster, do you still think Aronian is the favourite?

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The two players and their path to the finals

Links

• Round 6.3: And then there were two!
• Round 6.2: Ding Liren returns he favour
• Round 6.1: Why didn't So sacrifice an exchange?
• Round 5.3: Nasty 21...Kc7!! seals Svidler's fate
• Round 5.2: Aronian, So, Ding are in the semifinals
• Round 5.1: Flawless Aronian crushes Chucky 
• Round 4.3: MVL's Narikala against Grischuk
• Round 4.2: Aronian and Ivanchuk set up round five clash!
• The road to the Candidates 2018
• Round 4.1: Ivanchuk is Ivanchuk!
• Round 3.3: Caruana bows out
• Round 3.2: World No.35 eliminates World No.1 
• Round 3.1: Can Magnus Carlsen save himself?
• Round 2.3 (tiebreak) Ten 2700+ players knocked out
• The World Cup, then and now
• Round 2.2: Anand and Karjakin knocked out
• Round 2.1: Magnus Carlsen having fun in Tbilisi
• Round 1.3 (tiebreaks): Nail biting chess and true sportsmanship 
• Round 1.2: Eljanov out; 22 tiebreaks!
• Round 1.1: 35 decisive games
• World Cup 2017: A glorious opening ceremony
• Tbilisi loves you!