Ding tries to surprise Gukesh

After reaching a 28-move draw with White against D Gukesh, World Champion Ding Liren admitted in a post-game interview with Cristian Chirila:

I wanted to surprise Gukesh when he opened it and save my preparation in the meantime.

Ding’s variation of an Italian opening on the white side gave him the initiative and a considerable time advantage. Gukesh needed over 20 minutes before playing his 18.^th Movement that was an inaccuracy.

Better than 18…d4 would have been 18…Kh8, which would have prevented 19.Qh6as played in the game. But after 19…g6Ding failed to find the most difficult continuation – the Chinese GM played 20.Ld3than 20.Te1 with the threat of transferring the rook to the h-file was stronger.

Gukesh pushed his center pawns further forward with 20…c4 21.Be4 d3

The black center pawns are really disturbing for White, so Ding understandably decided to give a perpetual check with 22.Bxg6 fxg6 23.Rxg6+ hxg6 24.Qxg6+ Kh8 25.Qh6+and so forth.

It was an interesting theoretical battle that served as a prelude to the World Championship match, which is scheduled to begin in Singapore in November.

Gukesh and Ding Liren will play the eagerly awaited 14-game match in three months | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Firouzja scores decisive victory

Ding vs Gukesh was one of four draws in the first round of the Sinquefield Cup. Wesley So and Anish Giri fought an interesting 41-move battle in a Benoni structure, while Praggnanandhaa could not find a precise move that would allow him to launch a dangerous kingside attack against Nodirbek Abdusattorov from a Sicilian Defense.

However, after all the draws were signed, Fabiano Caruana and Alireza Firouzja still had a tense position in their key match. Firouzja and Caruana are the leaders in the overall Grand Chess Tour standings.

Caruana made an interesting pawn sacrifice in the opening, but in the end it was Firouzja who prevailed. There was no shortage of evaluation fluctuations in the 85-move encounter.

Fabiano Caruana gives up the game | Photo: Lennart Ootes

Table after round 1

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