Day by Day

丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) – Dommaraju Gukesh
World Chess Championship 2024; match game 2; Sentosa, November 26, 2024
Giuoco Piano C50

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bc4 Bc5 4. d3 Nf6 5. Nc3 a6 6. a4 d6 7. 0-0 h6 8. Be3 Be6 9. a5 Bxc4 10. dxc4 0-0

Ian Alexandrovich Nepomniachtchi, the previous challenger to 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén), has time now to amuse himself with splitting hairs: “... Be6xc4 and ... 0-0 is a bit strange. If you don’t want to get this structure you normally take on e3 and play ... 0-0. If you don’t want to take a tough decision, you just castle and see what happens. But to accept such an unpleasnt structure voluntarily... not practical to say the least”.
11. Bxc5 dxc5 12. b3 Qxd1 13. Rfxd1 Rad8

14. Rdc1!? An ugly move, in true computer style, but that’s now how chess works. Yet 丁立人 (Dīng Lìrén) himself, afterwards, was not impressed by it at all: “The move Rd1-c1 is a typical idea in this kind of structure, but I don’t think it’s a good move in the game because I didn’t know how to develop while he has such a strong Knight on d4. In fact, later on, I moved the Rook back to d1”.
14. ... Nd4! 15. Ne1. If 15. Nxe5 then 15. ... Rfe8 16. f4 Nxe4 17. Nxe4 Ne2+ 18. Kf1 Nxf4! (not 18. ... Nxc1? on account of 19. Nc3! trapping the Black Knight) 19. Nxf7 Kxf7= with equality.
15. ... Rd6 16. Kf1

16. ... g6 (16. ... g5!?)
17. Rd1 Rfd8 18. f3 Kg7 19. Kf2 h5 20. Ne2 Nc6 21. Nc3 Nd4 22. Ne2 Nc6 23. Nc3 Nd4 ½–½.

At the end, both had what they wanted, waiting for more to come. Photo: Maria Alekseevna Emelianova.