Gukesh vs. Ding, Game 9 Opening: A professional line with a twist

The ninth game of the 2024 Chess World Championship is a main line Catalan, where Gukesh (White) played 1. d4 and fianchettoed the kingside bishop, and Ding Liren (Black) is playing with a solid, Slav-style pawn triangle on e6-d5-c6. Especially Gukesh was moving quickly leading up to his surprise of the day, 10. Bc3!?. You almost always see White develop by way of Bd2-Bf4 or b3 instead, and since Bc3 is a very rare yet perfectly good move, it is a great choice to take his opponent into territory he knows best.

There is a recent top level game in the same 10th move position, Giri-Niemann (2024), in which Giri made a mistake on move 15 and lost in 117 moves! Ding thought for 19 minutes and played the normal-looking 10. …Bb7 instead of Niemann’s …Ne4, which also remains within a few previous Master games.

The first 11 moves of game 9 are given below. Follow the game live on Lichess, or on stream with commentary by Grandmasters Anish Giri and Arturs Neikšāns.