Once upon a time, there was a candidate for the U.S. Supreme Court who was considered to be at best a mediocre judge and thus unworthy of being seated as a justice on the highest court in the land. One of his defenders offered as a defense something to the effect that even mediocre people are entitled to a little representation as well.
In that spirit, Ding Liren and Gukesh Dommaraju have brought us game 10 of the World Championship match, a crummy game that went 36 moves but could have been agreed drawn around move 13 were it not for the Sofia rules and/or the howls of protest that would have emanated across the chess world.
Ding repeated the London System from game 6, though with a slightly different move order, and then played the unusual 5.Be2. The game soon took on a Queen’s Gambit flavor when White played 7.c4, and the first key moment came after White’s 10th move. Gukesh thought for half an hour and decided on 10…Nh5, looking to eliminate White’s dark-squared bishop. White had a couple of moderately interesting options (11.Ne4 and later 13.Bxf6 Bxf6 14.Qc2) - not that either was particularly amazing - but Ding’s 11.Bg5 Be7 12.Ne4 Nf6 13.Nxf6+ was essentially a draw offer. The remaining moves were a matter of going through the motions: trading pieces, centralizing, putting the pawns on the right squares and then making a repetition.
If it seems I’m being hard on the players, let me assure you that I’m actually sympathetic. First, World Championship participants are so unbelievably well-prepared, especially with Black, that it’s very difficult to find something tricky. Today’s draw looked easy, but it’s quite possible that Ding had some interested ideas planned in case Gukesh had tried some of the other reasonable lines. Second, there’s more freedom to take risks early in the match, when there’s still time to catch up after a loss. At this point there are only four games left, and a single loss could well prove fatal. The players are naturally going to grow in their risk aversion in the final games leading up to the rapid playoff (if it gets there).
So let’s hope that in game 11 (and not only in game 11) one player or the other gets surprised in the opening and is forced to go in for a full-blooded fight. Otherwise, we might be in for more games like this, leaving the players a little too well-rested for a possible playoff.
Here’s today’s game, with my comments.