Robert Ris: "In game 11 of the match Gukesh came up with an almost new idea on move 5 in the Reti Opening, which transformed the play into a Blumenfeld Gambit with reversed colours. Incidentally, the players were following my recommendation from my course "A complete Black Repertoire against 1.Nf3 & 1.c4".
After 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 d4 3.b4 c5 4.e3 Nf6, it was the young Indian who surprised his opponent with 5.a3 which so far has only been tried in a few correspondence games. It definitely caught Ding Liren by surprise, as only after 5 moves he was already an hour down on the clock!
Nevertheless, his position was quite playable and after a few inaccuracies by Gukesh, Black even obtained a clear advantage. However, the position remained very complicated and it was Gukesh who could seize the initiative with a nice pawn sacrifice. Soon after the reigning World Champion blundered horribly, enabling Gukesh to take the lead 6-5!"
Exercise: What is the best continuation for Black?
Feel free to move the pieces on the live diagram!
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