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The Hour on Move Eleven

Gukesh Dommaraju vs Ding Liren, World Championship, Singapore, game 11 2024 · Reti Opening, reversed Blumenfeld · 1-0

Coach

Both players got the opening wrong. Gukesh had his seconds' idea ready on move five and mixed it up by move nine; Ding was an hour down on the clock by move five and answered a strategically won position with a move that hunted tactics instead of finishing his development. Kidambi, writing it up three days later with the match still running, says he would have called White's position strategically lost around move twelve. What happens after that is the reason to replay the game: Gukesh spends an hour on a quiet pawn move, works out that he is worse, and then plays the best stretch of chess in the match.

Before move one

Step through the game; it stops where a move is worth finding.

···

Arrow keys step through the game. Explore tries your own moves; Stockfish answers.

  • Watch the clock as much as the board. Ding is an hour down on move five, Gukesh gives an hour back on move eleven, and both collapses in this game happen to whoever had just stopped thinking.
  • Ask what each knight is for. Black's knights hold c5 and e5 for fifteen moves, out of reach of any white pawn; White wins by spending three moves sending one knight to the corner and back.
  • When a pawn cannot be defended, look for what giving it away buys. It happens twice here, once in the note to move fifteen and once on the board at move seventeen.
  • Notice which side has a piece aimed at nothing. Ding's bishop takes three moves to reach a diagonal where it does no work, and that is the difference in the final position.
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