World Championship, Game 4
Ding tries a slightly offbeat opening; Gukesh draws comfortably.
Coming off a loss in game 3 on Wednesday and a rest day on Thursday, Ding Liren decided to try a quiet, slightly offbeat opening system in game 4 of his World Championship match with Gukesh Dommaraju. He didn’t repeat his 1.e4 from game 2 or revert to his old favorite, the Catalan. Instead, he went for 1.Nf3 followed by 2.e3 and 3.b3, a system that has some popularity in the blitz world (Hikaru Nakamura in particular is a huge fan of this opening) but is very much a by-way in classical chess. Was this a genuine attempt to make something happen, or his way of taking a second day off to calm his nerves while waiting for game 6 to make a serious push? We’ll see.
In the game, Gukesh experienced no problems to speak of, and if anyone showed any signs of ambition it was him; in particular his 13…Ne5 was a bit of a provocation while the slightly bizarre 30…f5, though not particularly risky, was not the sort of move played by someone trying to be careful about making a draw as easily and safely as he can. Regardless, not much happened, and the players repeated moves as they went through the time control. The match is tied 2-2.
My notes are here; game 5 will be played tomorrow/today (Saturday). (Those interested in deeper analysis of the game, along with my video recaps, can sign up for a paid yearly membership to the blog - click the button below for more on this.)