World Championship Game 4: A balanced draw
Ding Liren bounced back well with a balanced draw in the fourth game against D Gukesh at FIDE World Championship 2024 presented by Google. The world champion opted for this line in the Reti opening to surprise his opponent. It worked well according to him. However, the positional advantage was miniscule. He felt that he had to play f4 at some point but was not sure about the evaluation in some variation. Instead, he opted for a safer variation. Pieces got exchanged at regular intervals and the game eventually liquidated into an equal rook endgame where draw became the obvious result. Game 5 starts tomorrow at 5 p.m. local time, 2:30 p.m. IST. Photo: FIDE/Maria Emelianova
A solid draw
"I had a rest day to recover from the tough loss. Today I am in a very very good mood. I chose this opening idea to try to surprise my opponent. It worked well, not so bad. The positional advantage was very very small. He neutralized my initiative. It was a very balanced game and a good played game." - Ding Liren on recovering from previous game loss. "It was not a completely new line for me. I had seen it somewhere before but it was a bit of a surprise and I was playing over the board from very early on. I think I reacted well enough. At some point I felt like, he had maybe a slight edge, but I quickly neutralized it. Then he is kind of pushing but it should never be anything really serious for either of us." - D Gukesh on Game 4.
It's a solid game with black. Towards the end maybe I had some chances to press better. With black, this all you can expect, in a match. - Gukesh
Ding Liren - Gukesh: 0.5-0.5
Ding Liren opted for 1.Nf3 against D Gukesh. He later explained his choice behind playing 1.Nf3, 2.e3, 3.b3 and 5.Ba3, he has fond memories of playing Queen's Indian with black pieces. He was playing the same with reversed color and a tempo up.
"When I saw this position, somehow I chose a little bit risky plan to like this 11.b4, and not to play the usual 11.d4. Actually I am not sure about the evaluation after that and he surprised me with 13...Ne5 allowing f4. After 15...b6, I thought maybe it's time to settle for a draw. I didn't see a way. Maybe the computer can point out some great ideas Ba6 first but I didn't see." - Ding Liren if he is okay with a draw, since it is a World Championship Match and draws happen.
"After 13...Ne5 here if I play 14.f4 I think it's not so accurate Nbd7 15.a4 he can counterplay with a5 If I take 16.bxa5 Nc5 and take back the pawn at a5.
Maybe here 15.f4 deserves some attention Ned7 16.a5
Also here, 16.f4 is quite interesting Nc4 now I cannot take 17.Bxc4 dxc4 18.Qxc4 c5 19.bxc5 bxc5 20.Nf3 Bd3. So it means if I want to press, I have to play f4 at some point. Here I saw that 16.f4 is just not so good due to Nc4. So I tried to play safer." - The world champion on if there were any critical moments or sharp lines he saw during the game.
"f4 was one of the ideas that I always had to consider, here I think after Nc4, I am just at least slightly better. I considered f4 but I thought it involved some risk for White and he was not ready to take that risk." - Gukesh on White's propensity to play f4.
"I guess I should say, I kind of believe more in Fischer's quote. I believe in good moves. Yeah I am just trying to make good moves." - Gukesh's answer when he was asked if he made the numerology connection which Garry Kasparov did - born on 13th April and became the 13th world champion, Gukesh is 18 years old and he is attempting to be the 18th world champion.
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Every game starts at 5 p.m. local time, 2:30 p.m. IST. There is a rest day after every three games.
