Game of the Week #649: Ding Liren strikes

by Merijn van Delft
12/12/2024 – In his new Game of the Week show, Merijn van Delft looks at what many experts consider to be the best game of the World Championship match between Ding Liren and Gukesh D at Singapore 2024. They also consider it to be one of Ding's best games in years - his win in game 12 of the match that levelled the score and was a positional and strategic masterclass. | Merijn's show is available on-demand with a ChessBase Premium Account. You can register a Premium account here.
In this Fritztrainer: “Attack like a Super GM” with Gukesh we touch upon all aspects of his play, with special emphasis on how you can become a better attacking player.

Game of the Week #649

With one classical game to go, the World Championship match is more tense than ever. Will Ding go for a quick draw with White in game 14 and rely on his good chances in the rapid and blitz tiebreak?

Our Game of the Week is the twelfth game of the match, in which Ding was basically in a must win situation and finally went all out with the white pieces. With superior strategical thinking, Ding managed to slowly but surely increase the pressure and unsettle Gukesh, eventually resulting in a positional masterpiece.

Warm-up question: What would you play here with White?

Ding Liren - Gukesh D, World Championship Match Singapore 2024, Game 12
Position after 11....a5

This week's show

In this opening Black opts for active piece play and is not afraid to fight for the initiative from an early stage. One of the many good features of this opening is that Black is often the side which controls the pace of the game.

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Merijn van Delft is an International Master from the Netherlands who lived in Hamburg for many years and is currently based in Amsterdam. After scoring a GM norm in 2017 he is eager for more. His ChessBase show on Wednesday evenings has been running for over ten years now.
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