The Week in Chess

1. Champions Chess Tour Finals 2024 - Games and Results

   The Champions Chess Tour Finals take place Dec 17, 2024 – Dec 21, 2024 in Oslo, Norway over the board rather than via a server. 8 players compete: Magnus Carlsen, Alireza Firouzja, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Wesley So, Denis Lazavik, Vincent Keymer and Levon Aronian. The event starts with a Round Robin mini-match stage, these are two games matches with an Armageddon (times decided by bidding), if tied. There was then a final chance in the Survival Stage for players placed 3rd-6th in the Round Robin. Ian Nepomniachtchi beat Denis Lazavik in the Winners final to take one place. MVL beat Vincent Keymer and then Lazavik who had a second chance, in the Losers final. This meant the semifinal lineup was decided as Magnus Carlsen vs MVL (Carlsen got to choose his semifinal opponent after winning the RR) and Alireza Firouzja vs Ian Nepomniachtchi. The semi-finals are on December 20th and and finals to decide the title on the 21st. It's a straight knockout now. Time control 10m +2spm.

2. FIDE World Chess Championship 2024 - Games and Results

   The FIDE World Chess Championship took place in Singapore Mon 25th Nov to Fri 13th Dec 2024. Defending champion was 32 year old Ding Liren who won the title against Ian Nepomniachtchi in April 2023. The Challenger was 18 year old Gukesh Dommaraju who won the right to play the match after winning the Candidates tournament earlier in the year.

   Much was made of the poor form of Ding Liren who had admitted to depression but he played better than anyone had any right to expect. Ding won the first game but the match was soon level again after Gukesh won game 3.

   There were then seven draws in a row before Gukesh won a fluctuating struggle in game 11 where Ding stood well before losing the advantage and eventually blundering the position away in time trouble. Ding then won probably the best game of the match when he completely outplayed Gukesh in game 12. Game 13 was drawn before the final decisive game 14. Ding had white in the final game, didn't get an advantage and in fact then chose to play into a very drawish but inferior endgame. Of course he should have held this endgame and the blunder he made that allowed Gukesh to win was really very simple but I think the whole way he tried to secure the draw was psychologically wrong and I wasn't impressed even as I expected the game to be drawn. Gukesh has had a tremendous year, clumninating in this win. He finishes the year rated at number 5 in the world, he will be able to afford the kind of team only a world champion can afford from now on, the capture of the number one spot in the rating list will no doubt be the next target. He is the youngest ever world champion at 18 and there's clear room for improvement, some of the weaker parts of his game were exposed a bit in this match, but even just playing this match probably improved Gukesh as a player. My feeling is that Ding won't be too disappointed. He did put up a very decent defence of his title, far better than most predicted. The way it finished was a bit odd but was more a product of the sustained pressure of the match than that single moment, also he did have some lucky escapes in other games. The title clearly didn't suit Ding and honestly we need a better champion for the game as a matter of urgency now. Ding said he's likely to follow the Carlsen model of less classical and more rapid and blitz, I think that's a bit of a pity but hopefully we'll see him back to his best.

3. Gukesh is the new World Chess Champion after Ding makes an extraordinarily simple blunder - 14

   18 year old Gukesh Dommaraju became the youngest World Champion after defeating Ding Liren in the 14th and final game of the World Championship in Singapore. Just as we were preparing for a rapid tie-break on Friday Gukesh was the recipient of a gift of a whole point in the final game when a draw should have been well within Ding's capabilities. Ding only has himself to blame as he didn't even have be in a drawish endgame as awkward as this.

   Ding tried 1.Nf3 and 2.g3 and Gukesh surprised him with a very rare variation. The game followed the course of many others where the positions were a bit murky and hard to judge, even if there wasn't much in them. 19.Bxd4 would have been much better than 19.cxb5?! and after 25...b4 black had full equality. 26.a4 was in my view very much too cooperative, its idea was to trade into an inferior but drawn endgame like in game 13. But there was always going to be much more suffering involved today. The Russians always talk about having a "two result position" where you can play for a win without ever having to worry about defeat and this is what Ding signed up for the wrong side of. What he overlooked in the end was shocking in its triviality. He agreed to swap rooks apparently without noting that black would also be able to force the bishops off too and have a winning king and pawn endgame. It apparently took quite some time for Ding to realise what he had done, Gukesh obviously realised first and he was clearly very shocked. The drawing margin for error was still huge when the error happened.

   How can one explain such a blunder? Two days of defending bad endgames? Already thinking about the tie-breaks? Just the stress and strain of these matches? Possibly some if not all of these.

   All things considered Ding gave a pretty good account of himself in the match as a whole but is clearly a pale shadow of his former self. I really hope he can put this game and indeed the last years behind him and resume a normal chess career. I thought before and during this match it had come a year too early for Gukesh. He now has the title, will have learned a lot from this and will continue to mature, both with chess experience but also physically. Gukesh's future is not yet set, a long champion like Kasparov and Carlsen? Or a one term like Ding? With his chess clearly not yet in its final form, nobody can guess. This was a decent, if not classic, match which told us quite a lot about where classical chess is in 2024. Players are looking to get their opponents into unfamiliar positions, there was none of the 30 move deep opening prep we saw a decade and more ago. We have a worthy champion, what will he do with the title? Like it or not the World Champion is looked to as a leader of the game, and Ding did not choose to fulfill that role, this is likely to change.

   Final score: Gukesh 7.5-6.5 Ding Liren

4. Ding survives a serious scare in World Championship Game 13 - 13

   The thirteenth game of the World Chess Championship in Singapore between Gukesh D and Ding Liren ended in a draw after 68 moves. Gukesh surprised Ding in the opening and had him on the back foot for much of the game, there was a concrete chance missed on move 31, unfortunately for Gukesh the move he played looked like it might do the trick too.

   Gukesh returned to 1.e4 and the French Defence was again played by Ding. 7.a3 was already rare, "a move order trick" according to Ding and the players were soon on their own. The position became extremely unbalanced after 10...Nc4 11.Bxc4. Maybe Gukesh should have tried 12.Qg4, the engine's preference but over the board he didn't see its merits. 17.Qf3 was nominally equal according to the computer but the position remained very tense and Ding said he missed 19.Qe2 and also he missed 22.Bf4! after which black is very much on the back foot. 23...Rc6 was much better than 23...Rb7 but Gukesh then played the rather odd 25.Bxe7 saying he feared Nd5 but there were other more powerful ways of stopping that. Then the key moments of the game occurred. 30.Rde1 forced Ding to take two rooks for the Queen, I can understand his reluctance but 30...Qf7? was just bad and the taking the two rook gave near equality. Not only is there an objective very strong continuation with 31.Rxe8 Qxe8 32.Ne4 which looks very hard to defend but Ding also didn't have a reply for 31.Ne4? and thought he might have to resign. Fortunately for him he had 31...Rf8! which is actually very near to equality after 32.Nd6 Rc7! After that Ding made the rest of the game look ridiculously easy, he got to move 40 with equality and traded down to a draw with no further drama.

   A miss for Gukesh but the presence of an attractive but ultimately inferior alternative was what cost him his chance.

   Score Ding 6.5-Gukesh 6.5.

   12th December Game 14 Ding-Gukesh. It is at least conceivable that Ding thinks his best chances are in the tie-breaks and he will play it very safe. But maybe he'll feel Gukesh is vulnerable and that tomorrow is his best chance. Tie-breaks will be on December 13th if needed.

5. Ding scores a crushing win against Gukesh to level the World Championship match at 6-6 - 12

   Ding Liren won game 12 of the FIDE World Chess Championship in Singapore and immediately leveled the match up after his loss yesterday.

   Ding had the white pieces and again we had a very sharp flank opening after Gukesh chose 4...d4. There are certainly safer ways to play. What we saw was an unbalanced English where Gukesh made a number of concessions until he was busted by move 23. 13...Rb8?!, 16...Nd7?! and the losing move 22...Bg5? were the key moments. It only slowly dawned on Ding that his position was "much, much better" after 23.Nf4, when Gukesh felt it necessary to play 23...Bxf4, losing all the dark squares on the board, the game was as good as over, and Ding didn't make any mistakes.

   Ding played pretty well, Gukesh was a little inaccurate, there were no outrageous errors, just some small miscalculations, and the position was suddenly overwhelming for Ding. There's a rest day tomorrow, and then just two games to go before a potential day of rapid and maybe blitz tie-breaks.

   Ding 6 - Gukesh 6

   Rest day Tuesday 10th Dec

   Game 13 Gukesh-Ding Wednesday 11th December.

6. Ding blunders in a game of extraordinary mutual tension - World Championship Game 11 - 11

   The eleventh game of the FIDE World Chess Championship saw Gukesh strike potentially a fatal blow to Ding's chances in the match. This was completely different to yesterday's game, Gukesh chose the Reti and Ding chose a sharp variation which got him into trouble as he didn't seem to fancy the complications when he got there. Ding thought for about an hour over his fourth and fifth moves and put himself in time trouble right from the start. This was clearly a sign of indecision. Gukesh's 5.a3 was shown to him last night and he actually lost his advantage quite quickly, 9.d3=. Gukesh caught up on the clock with a huge think to find 11.g3 but then after 15.Rd1?! e6 or 15....Qb8 would have left Ding a lot better. After 15...g6 Gukesh took over but it took him a while to realise he was better. By move 25 both players were down to 15 minutes for 15 moves except Ding then used 7 of them. 26...Rd6 might have kept equality, Gukesh then missed a combination with 28...Nxb7! but instead he played quickly and Ding's fairly speedy reply blundered the entire position.

   This was not on the face of it a very good game but the level of pressure on both players today was rare and that's why we have World Championships and Candidates. A bunch of rapid games where the individual results and occasional blunder don't really matter very much might be more pleasant for the players but you don't make reputations that way and the games lose their special nature. Ding will find it extremely hard to come back from this but there will still be pressure on Gukesh as he approaches the winning line.

   Gukesh 6-5 Ding.

   Game 12 Monday 9th December Ding-Gukesh.

7. Damp squib of an opening from Ding means that World Championship Game 10 was drawn quickly - 10

   Ding Liren chose the London System against Gukesh in Game 10 of the World Chess Championship. Ding was trying for a very tiny edge and after 10...Nh5 which cost Gukesh a bit of time on the clock it became apparent Ding had no ideas at all to cause trouble. By move 16 it was impossible to imagine anything other than a draw and that happened on move 36.

   Score Ding 5 Gukesh 5

   Game 11 Gukesh-Ding Sunday 8th Dec.

8. 14th XTX Markets London Chess Classic 2024 - Games and Results

   The 14th London Chess Classic sponsored by XTX Markets takes place in the Emirates Stadium Fri 29th Nov to Sat 7th Dec 2024. The field of the Elite round robin was Gawain Jones, Michael Adams, Santosh Vidit, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, Nikita Vitiugov, Andrew Hong, Ju Wenjun and Shreyas Royal play. Raunak Sadhwani and Ilya Smirin are the top seeds in the Masters, a 9 round open.

   Gawain Jones scored a fine victory with an undefeated 5/7, his round one win against Michael Adams seems especially important in retrospect, Adams tied with Vidit, Vitiugov and Mamedyarov on 4 points in second place.