Chess - The 2024 World Championship (Game 3 Review)

Game 3 has the Fischer momentum brewing as challenger GM Gukesh D evens the score with his first ever win against defending champion GM Ding Liren (Let aside another victory by Gukesh over Ding with FischerRandom). 

Gukesh did mention earlier that if he could have any Chess Grandmaster, dead or alive, as his second, it would be Bobby Fischer! For all I knew before the championship about either player, it was that Ding was then undefeated against Gukesh, and Gukesh's playing techniques were really strong and smooth, regardless of whether on Ding himself. With Gukesh being nearly everyone's favorite to win the coveted Championship Title, the momentum alone was speaking volumes in that merely winning a game against Ding was already a pick-me-up. It surfaces here, today, with this game, after Ding as Black held his own thrice against Gukesh in previous encounters. 

The difference is that Fischer in Game 3 decisively traded his knight for a bishop, keeping his g pawn in the h file, only to use it to his position a little later.

When Spassky offered up a Queen trade, Fischer simply ignored it for a check. Following a couple of Queen checks was a gentle bishop check where Spassky resigned.

Fast forward to said game number in 2024 and Gukesh theoretically enticed Ding for a Queen trade, wherein axc3 made for Ding's swift A pawn from Game 1 impossible to march ahead.

This itself isn't the element of counterfeit that carried the stakes of this game. What we're looking at is Ding's ambitious Bc2.

For those who read my blog post about Game 1, I did mention that Ding's pressure about this championship was interpreted not just in his uneven form, but in that his January win against Gukesh was followed by a Sinquefield draw, which could have been noted as the changing of the favorable squared bishop. I was clearly using a Chess-like analogy for 'the changing of the guard.' Coincidentally funny, that, resulting in a similar scenario right here.

I wouldn't venture to guess this is the equivalent of Fischer blundering his bishop in Game 1 of 1972's championship.

The accuracy for Ding went a bit lower than Gukesh, then somehow slightly higher, until things took a steady to steep decline with his analyzed inaccuracy of 18. Rh5.

No pun intended, but is 18 coincidentally meant to be Gukesh's lucky number by age and potential number of could be champion?

The notation I discuss below belongs solely to game 3 of the 2024 World Championship that recently concluded.

It is said that being emotionless can serve as a key neutral element that lets the board do the talking. There is always a lot going on on the board, and surely the greatest players feel the pressure in all sorts of ways.

Ding's expression of worry over his grounded and soon to be trapped bishop was all over the place this game, as even the spectators couldn't help feel for him.

A swell example of enticement was when said pattern got the better of GM Garry Kasparov against GM Viswanathan Anand in Blitz Chess in 1996:

A similar circumstance had Anand unhappy with opponent Ding in 2019 where Ding had the material and positional edge, except Anand managed to entice Ding enough to win with the comeback. It is still worth noting that Anand in many aspects, has more overall experience of handling such situations than Ding and Gukesh combined.

The reason I mention this is because Ding was essentially in Anand's place from that game as Black today, and his final moves of clinging on, given it was his day, or if he made it so, could have worked the way he would have liked it to.

Frustration over the heat of the game is human and natural. While it is probably easy for spectators, fans and in general, people to say, here's to say I play things polite in that I got to know more and more about Ding and Gukesh over these past many months. I see their potential one on one, regardless of how either performed in team tournaments, regardless of highs and lows, regardless of where they even come from.

As for these three games, Ding won Game 1 intellectually. Game 2 was a draw, apparently on Gukesh's terms. Gukesh took Game 3 brilliantly, but more so in that he developed the scope for enticement, saw the opportunity and seized it. Ding displayed skill in using defensively developed pieces in Game 1, but Gukesh certainly handled time pressure in less than a minute better than Ding did with this game.

As it stands now,

Ding is the better intellectual.

Gukesh is the better improviser.

Congratulations to GM Gukesh D on his first win ever against GM Ding Liren and the turning point of a Fischer building streak I apparently saw coming after Game 1. I didn't happen to congratulate Ding on winning game 1, perhaps part of it having to do with that it seemed to be an expected pattern. No favoritism intended towards either. The real winner is us, getting to absorb the levels of the games and where the mastery unfolds. I'd congratulate Ding for spicing Game 1 with a win (some say in 14 years).

We are back to square one with an equal score. Rest day might seem straightforward to both players. The ample speculation itself among viewers, considering these games are more than just draws, may not rest easy. But the hard way is still a chapter for a later game. 

Edit: Guys! Just to be up to speed with the Tata Steel Masters game of 2023 between Ding and Gukesh, I only recently looked it up, and write this a couple of hours before Game 4 on 29th November, 2024.

Said game had Gukesh as white and open with d4 too! 

After seeing this game from 2023, where Ding won with intellect over improvisation, especially considering similar stuff happened in Game 3 where Gukesh's somewhat different position got the better of Ding given their history on their board, this further reasserts that Ding is the better intellectual and Gukesh the better improviser.

Ding played this game before becoming world champion in April of 2023. Gukesh strikes back with improvisation, before potentially becoming champion himself. It makes infinite sense now!

I would like to see more of Ding's intellect, preferably outside of the existing history between both players. I see how Gukesh can step up his game with every learning he has to potentially become the 18th World Champion. Given his growing momentum, I'd love to see Gukesh win with intellect too. Currently, the fact that my chess personality test got Ding Liren, I still stand by my intuition that he has a knack up his sleeve.

Commentator Maurice Ashley ended Game 3's Q&A with how Ding being a point behind GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in 2023 managed to strike back and win the tiebreakers. With that, I'd say drawing might serve in Ding's favor likewise. Gukesh is just getting started, and I await his arena of probability.