World Chess Championship 2024: What was the opening played in Gukesh vs Ding Liren in Round 9?
World Chess Championship 2024: What was the opening played in Gukesh vs Ding Liren in Round 9?
India’s D Gukesh and defending World Champion China’s Ding Liren played out Catalan Opening in the ninth round of the World Chess Championship Final happening in Singapore on Thursday.
In the Catalan Opening, White starts with central pawn push — d4, while Black advances the knight to f6. Gukesh and Ding followed the same line with the Indian playing theory moves in c4 and g3 while Ding replied with e6 and bishop to b4 in his second and third move respectively.
According to Lichess, “the Catalan Opening was named after the Spanish region of Catalonia, when Grandmaster Savielly Tartakower was asked, at the Barcelona tournament of 1929, to invent an opening system in honor of the region’s chess history. Usually, the game continues 3…d5 4.Nf3.”
The Catalan then has two main branches, the Open Variation and the Closed Variation. In the Open Variation, Black takes the pawn on c4. This gives White strong pressure on Black’s queenside, thanks to the fianchettoed bishop on g2. In the Closed Variation, Black retains his strong-point on d5, attempting to block out the bishop on g2, but stays passive.
The game between Gukesh and Ding continued to be the closed Catalan variation.
Gukesh and Ding went into the ninth round tied on points, having won one game apiece in the finale so far.
Earlier in the final, playing with white, Gukesh had used French Defence twice and the Queen’s Gambit Declined once. In the last round Gukesh had opened up with a Neo-Grünfeld Defense.
