A game that was very tense at move 14 with this pawn structure.
It is important not to lose patience and only start swapping the pawns until
you are sure you are not going to come out of it with the worst position.
Often club players (me included) get lost or fed up calculating all
the captures and start exchanging pawns hoping it does not matter.
Usually it does and the first player to break the tension can regret it.
Gukesh ‘cracked’ first but it was well worked out and it led to a series
of exchanges. Then, after 30 minutes and realising White never had
much left to work with Gukesh set a two move trap. ( I am joking).
Ding spent 35 seconds avoiding the trap and more wood was chopped.
After that is was a cold dead draw. The players cannot agree a draw till after
move 41 when a 30 second increment is added. It went down to bare kings.
The score is 4½ - 4½ and tomorrow in a rest day.
Blog Post 630