In an unexpected turn of events, Ding Liren defeated Gukesh D with the black pieces in the first game of the 2024 FIDE World Championship match in Singapore. Despite spending a lot of time at the beginning of the game, the Chinese Grandmaster found a way to nullify his opponent's opening initiative and take advantage of White's pawn weaknesses to break through with a decisive middlegame counterattack.
The action began at 5 PM sharp. Just before the arbiter started the clocks, the master of ceremonies, GM Maurice Ashley, introduced the two players, along with two rising stars from the Singaporean youth academy.
Ding Liren was accompanied by 9-year-old candidate master Ashwath Kaushik, the youngest player to defeat a GM in classical chess and the reigning World Rapid Cadets U8 Champion. Gukesh D was joined by 9-year-old Tanvi Trivedi, gold medallist in rapid and silver in standard and blitz at the 2023 Eastern Asian Championship, and Singapore's highest-rated U10 girl.
Immediately afterward, the ceremonial first move featured an exceptional guest: Sir Demis Hassabis. Co-founder and CEO of Google DeepMind, a leading AI research organization that created AlphaZero, Hassabis is also a FIDE Candidate Master. He once was the second highest ranked U-14 player in the world after the legend herself, Judit Polgar. Most recently, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing AlphaFold, a ground-breaking AI system that predicts the 3D structure of proteins from their amino acid sequences.
Gukesh pointed to his e-pawn – a slight surprise, as the Indian wunderkind generally favors 1.d4 or 1.Nf3. The game was on! Ding Liren chose the French Defence, but Gukesh remained unphased: although Ding Liren has played this opening quite frequently, including a couple of rapid games in 2023, his main move against 1.e4 in recent times has always been 1.e5. Nonetheless, he did use the French once in his 2023 World Championship match against Ian Nepomniachtchi, a game which he lost although definitely not due to the opening.
Ding was visibly surprised by Gukesh's 6.Nce2 (instead of 6.Ngf3) and took around three minutes to reply 6...Nc6 and a further seven minutes to go for the secondary line 7...a5 followed by 8...a4. Later, he argued that he had analysed the line but couldn't remember the correct continuations and decided to improvise on the board. According to databases he has never faced 6.Nce2 before, although between 2009 and 2012 he played twenty-one times against the main line 6.Nf3.
Still in preparation, Gukesh decided to go for it with 10.g4, playing for an attack. It was clear that both players had brought their fighting spirit to the board. Soon, the game was a mess, with all three results on the line. In the commentary booth, former Women's World Champion Xie Jun was certainly surprised at the result of the opening: "It seems that they haven't played this line before. They analyzed, they prepared, and they probably knew the plans, but this is the first time they gave it on the board. It's a very complicated position – the way they played is a little bit out of control".
Ding decided not to take any breaks – he spent 100% of his time at the board, while Gukesh would go to his personal room now and then. As the game progressed, Ding managed to create real counterplay on the queenside. Although the engines were claiming equality, it started to look like Gukesh's aggressive kingside attack might have backfired.
The retreat 22.Qe1 was definitely a blunder, and after that, Ding Liren seemed to be on the right track to win the game.
However, by playing 27…fxe6 instead of the solid 27…Bxe6, he allowed Gukesh a chance to get off the hook.
POSITION OF THE DAY
Put yourself in Gukesh's shoes. What would you play 30.Qc2 or 30.Bc5?
Low on time, Gukesh had initially calculated 30.Bc5 Qxg4 and now the brilliant 31.Qxh7!! with the point 31…Rxh7 32.Rf8 checkmate. However, upon arriving at the position on the board, he noticed that Black had the intermediate check 31…Qd4!+, and abandoned the idea. Therefore, he chose 30.Qc2 and Ding Liren wrapped up the game.
Instead, the 18-year-old Indian should have played 30.Bc5 Qxg4 and now 31.Rf3! attacking the a-pawn and after 31…Nc4, he could go 32.Qf1! which would have given him enormous tactical compensation and a real chance to muddy the waters.
In the postgame press conference, Ding Liren acknowledged that he had been a bit lucky as he had missed two tactics that, fortunately for him, didn't work for his opponent. For his part, Gukesh confessed that he was quite nervous before the game, and although he was able to calm down, he understood that his opponent had played very well.
For the first time since the 2010 Anand vs Topalov match, the first game of a title match ended decisively. On that occasion, Indian superstar Vishy Anand also lost to Veselin Topalov but went on to claim the title.
This is Ding's first win in classical chess since January 27, when he defeated GM Max Warmerdam in Tata Steel. Warmerdam joked about it on X after today's game.
The second game of the match will take place on Tuesday, November 26, at 5 PM local time in Singapore, with Ding Liren playing White.
FACT SHEET, Game 1, FIDE World Championship 2024:
White: Gukesh D
Black: Ding Liren
Result: 0-1
Opening: French Defence, Steinitz variation
Game length: 42 moves
Opening: French Defence
Variation: Steinitz Variation
Match score: 1-0 (in favor of Ding Liren)
Official website: worldchampionship.fide.com/
Full programme of side-events: worldchampionship.fide.com/events
Written by IM Michael Rahal (Singapore)
Photos: Eng Chin An and Maria Emelianova
About the event
Current World Champion Ding Liren, representing China, and challenger Gukesh D, from India, will face each other in a fourteen-game classical chess match. The player who scores 7.5 points or more will win the match, picking up the better part of the $2.5 million total prize fund.
The first of the fourteen scheduled games will take place on Monday, November 25 at 5 pm. Gukesh will open with White. The match will be hosted at the luxurious Resorts World Sentosa and will be broadcasted live with expert commentary on the FIDE YouTube Channel.
