Gukesh vs. Ding, Game 13 Opening: Returning to their roots

The thirteenth game of the 2024 Chess World Championship has Gukesh (White) driving back into Ding’s (Black) French Defence, 1. e4 e6. The game started in main line theory, but instead of choosing an f4 push as he did in game 1, Gukesh played a super rare 7. a3!?, initiating the first long think of the game from Ding.

After 17 minutes, he chose a simple …Be7, and Gukesh blitzed out the novel 8. Be3. Judging by Stockfish and Leela’s suggestions, this could be tricky for Black to come through cleanly, even as objectively there is no trouble yet; h4 and a spirited attack may not be far away! They are playing out the same script, where Ding will have to survive yet another early time deficit, or otherwise it will be Gukesh getting the bounce-back victory this time.

The first 8 moves of game 13 are given below. Follow the game live on Lichess, or on stream with commentary by Grandmasters Peter Leko and Daniel Naroditsky.