Gukesh vs. Ding, Game 5 Opening: The French Defence, 2nd Edition
The fifth game of the 2024 Chess World Championship returns to the opening from the first game, where Gukesh (White) chose 1. e4 and Ding Liren (Black) replied 1. …e6. This time, however, Gukesh chose the Exchange Variation and traded pawns on d5 on move three, which is notorious for its drawishness. Ding did make an aggressive push with …c5 to challenge the centre, followed by Gukesh initiating an early queen trade; 8. Qe2+ seems to be a new move, and possibly improves on Nakamura-Abasov (Candidates 2024) who reached the same position out of a Petroff Defence.
The Polgar/Hess commentary stream mentioned that Anish Giri’s Chessable course on the French recommends Ding’s ensuing king recapture on e7, and it may have surprised Gukesh, who started thinking deeply after mutual low time usage to start. This is the first game where White has trailed on the clock.
The first 13 moves of game 5 are given below. Follow the game live on Lichess, or on stream with commentary by Grandmasters Judit Polgar and Robert Hess.
