Gukesh vs. Ding, Game 6 Opening: Deep Preparation in the London
The sixth game of the 2024 Chess World Championship features a London System, with Ding Liren (White) playing 1. d4 and 2. Bf4. Gukesh (Black) chose a standard version with …c5. Both players clearly knew what they were doing, as they reached move 16 in under 15 minutes combined, whereupon Gukesh finally started thinking more deeply.
The maneuver with trades on c6 and d6, followed by Qa4, is quite a well-known one, and has been played many times in the last 3-4 years — including Carlsen-Ding (2023)! That game, though, did not include Ding’s Qa3 to pin c5. 11. …e5!? is especially fascinating, and shows that this sixth game of the match will contain significant intrigue, unless Black’s queen gets caught in a perpetual. They finally entered new territory when 16. dxe5 improved on Aronian-Dominguez (2022)‘s 16. Rde1?!.
The first 17 moves of game 6 are given below. Follow the game live on Lichess, or on stream with commentary by Grandmasters Peter Leko and Robert Hess.
