Gukesh vs. Ding, Game 1 Opening: A Surprise Within A Surprise

Gukesh D and Ding Liren have kicked off the 2024 Chess World Championship, Gukesh with White and Ding with Black. The first questions are always about which openings the players will endeavour to catch their opponent in, since they are so knowledgeable of all openings. Ding produced a small surprise already on move one, choosing a French Defence (1. …e6) in response to Gukesh’s 1. e4. But after five moves of common theory, it was Gukesh who raised eyebrows with a confident 6. Nce2!?, a move played in only about 100 (1%) out of over 13,000 Master games in the Lichess database. That prompted Ding to spend two minutes and then nearly 28 (!) minutes on his 7th and 8th moves.

Gukesh’s 7th move transposed to a 2022 game Duda-Carlsen, which Magnus won in 24 moves. The first eight moves of game 1 are given below. Follow the game live on Lichess, or on stream with commentary by Grandmasters Judit Polgar and Daniel Naroditsky.