World Championship, Round 9

A rapid playoff "draws" nearer...

Two wins in the first three games spoiled us all. While both players have had their chances in the last six games, all of them have ended peacefully, including game nine.

While the game quickly flamed out and could have been drawn in 20-something moves, it did have its interesting moments. It was the first Catalan of the match - an opening which both players specialize in. Gukesh’s 10.Bc3 was a rare but very interesting idea in place of the usual 10.Bf4. As far as I can tell Black can equalize, but there are some lines that require precision.

In fact Ding played very well, up to a point, but his 17…Bxf3 was an unforced inaccuracy. 19…Ra6 was a further inaccuracy pertaining to a subtle tactical point, and had Gukesh played 20.Ne5 Black would have had some unpleasant problems to solve. Fortunately for Ding, Gukesh played 20.Qb5, and with tactically accurate play Black was able to equalize and make a comfortable draw. (If anything, Ding was pushing in the second half of the game, but there was no real chance that anything would come of it.)

So, the match is tied 4.5-4.5 going into the third rest day. Five games remain until a rapid tiebreak, if necessary. Will it be? Four of the last seven World Championship matches have gone to a playoff (Anand-Gelfand, Carlsen-Karjakin, Carlsen-Caruana, and Ding-Nepomniachtchi), so it wouldn’t be surprising if it did.

We’ll see. For now, let’s enjoy the rest day. Here’s game nine, with my comments.