Battle of the Favourites | Ding Liren vs Fabiano Caruana | FIDE Candidates 2020

Grandmaster Daniel King demonstrates Ding Liren vs Fabiano Caruana from the 2020 Candidates. Support on Patreon: 🔥 / powerplaychess ►Support via PayPal (💲): www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr...
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[@PowerPlayChess]

There seems to be a widespread misunderstanding of preparation. It is not just about memorising variations. After 9...e5 the different lines branch out so quickly and with such complexity that it is impossible to 'memorise' everything. Caruana would have simply known that he would have some initiative in the line that occurred and therefore decent compensation (in a human sense rather than a silicon sense!). There were a couple of ways for Black to keep the initiative going. The fault was not the choice of opening. I think 9...e5 worked extremely well: objectively it probably isn't 100% correct, but the complexity is too much for a human. Ding played well, but made one mis-step. Caruana failed to exploit the mistake and after that Ding held his nerve brilliantly. It was a great struggle!

[@chrisgroves4097]

Daniel, how much isn't it about memorising concrete specific lines, though? If we think of that famous 2004 WC game Kramnik - Leko, it seems Kramnik had reached this exact position and concluded (with Fritz and his seconds) that it was winning until the ...,Qd3 bombshell from Leko. What do you think?

[@PowerPlayChess]

@@chrisgroves4097 That is a very specific case. Sometimes players get lucky and are able to get in their preparation - exactly.

[@MordimersChessChannel]

@@PowerPlayChess That's what happened for Anand - in his immortal game :)

[@trevorochmonek9024]

Don't get me wrong, but I think you underestimate the prep by Fabi and his team (Rustam a great second). After reading "the Anand files" and the discovery of the Bonner variation, you can conclude that Black is every line fine but it's a lot of work. Probably they have 40,50 sides of variation with 50.000 moves analysed to a draw. The problem for me, it seems that Fabi mixed the right move order. The Computer gives in a lot variations h7-h6 (after Qf4). Fabi must have known this detail and looked later in the game how to make it work and played it. I think also he looked at this whole system before the game, but he couldn't memorize all the details.

[@trevorochmonek9024]

@@chrisgroves4097 I think Anand described once very well. He said it's not about memorizing all the moves, but the right plans. For example in Bonn he knew in the third game that his king is very safe on h7 (was it h7?) in a specific variation. All he had to do is to get the right moves to do it. Another example is the first game against Topalov in Sofia 2010. There Anand rememberd his king has to go to a specific field, but he moved his king too early and Topalov won a very nice game.

[@rodrigobalencar]

“Life's not about how hard of a hit you can give... it's about how many you can take, and still keep moving forward.”

[@aphexon.]

how many can you take? I can take it all.

[@Breeelax]

@@BeFourCM the delivery in Rocky Balboa (or Rocky V, dont know anymore) is the more iconic one. Especially when you see the "full" quote: It ain't about about how hard you hit... it's about how hard you can GET hit and keep moving foward. How much you can take and keep moving forward. That's how winning is done! I am tearing up just typing this. so good.

[@proflaxis6968]

What a game! To win in such a style under so much pressure. Truly awesome. Great to see The Real Ding back. Go Ding Kong.

[@Breeelax]

Ding standing his ground against a Caruana that very cleverly targeted the low self-esteem target with a bonkers strategy to shake him. What a guy.

[@peterbodziony9768]

Watching your videos is by far the most favorite part of my day during this whole madness going on around us. Thank you Mr King!

[@nonlessvoid311]

One Ding to rule them all, Sauron is back with a vengeance!

[@TessaTestarossa]

What an incredible, beautiful madness. I've always considered Fabi a player with great preparation, brilliant technique, yet somewhat unimaginative, without the sort of eye for the kill, which I think is best seen in his rapid and blitz play. And while I was pleasantly surprised by his explosive choice of opening, yea, h6 had me go "There's our Fabi." Great to see Ding bounce back. Perhaps betting on him is still a reasonable option after all. Either way, if things continue the way they've been going so far, Candidates 2020 might be a treat even for the sweetest of teeth.

[@danielgallagher5152]

Caruana - Carlsen Game 8, where Fabi was winning but played the really slow move 24.h3? comes to mind. It’s in these ultra sharp positions where both sides are risking things that he seems to go astray by playing too cautiously sometimes. His game against Van Forrest in the Tata Steel is of a similar character as well if I recall.

[@paulgreen7906]

Ding had his back to the (Great) wall. He showed great self belief and had the courage to make a fist of it. Enter the Dragon! Tournament is wide open

[@horvathliviu2101]

Ding Liren is back, he is my favorite in this tournament. I think he is the only one who can beat Carlsen in the World Championship Match. Thanks for the video/commentary !!!

[@kasparov937]

@Jos Pickering If the match is drawn Ding would have better chances in the playoffs than Caruana did against Carlsen, that's why overall he is a bigger threat than Fabi.

[@femioyekan8184]

@@kasparov937 You're probably right, but at least there are 14 classical games this time. The more games, the less the advantage in the tiebreaks should matter. Of course Carlsen might win handily in the classical portion no matter who he faces, but it hasn't worked out that way in his recent matches.

[@karlholdo831]

He's one of my favourite players too. Go well Ding!

[@rastrisfrustreslosgomez544]

HOLY bishops batman! I'm sad the 1000 IQ moves from Faby end up not working out in the end but I'm also glad Ding got a win under his belt, he really needed it

[@nilsp9426]

He seemed so indecisive afterwards. I wonder if he engaged in wishful thinking based on the clock times. Or just did not look for a killing blow any more, just poking. Somehow it felt a bit awkward after that crazy prep. Maybe someone with a mindset like Kasparov or Topalov would have stirred up more trouble there.

[@vagabond7684]

What a comeback.. seriously, was really shocked and sad about the first two losses of Ding #KingDing all the way

[@tennisblood]

Fabi played well up until that h6 move... Well, you live by the sword, you die by the sword. I hope he will continue to play this enterprising style of chess despite the loss. Because only this type of style could potentially beat Magnus.

[@BaksteenUitMaassluis]

Preparation of Anish and Fabi backfires. Hours of work in the bin. Fortunately we can enjoy it. Thanks Dan. Stay safe.

[@matahari1576]

Great show. Thanks. Especially in these strange times, I have more time to follow longer Vids, and I enjoy it. I am not a tea drinker, still I will support your Channel today.

[@jamie6964]

Fantastic game and great analysis. Keep them coming!

[@PowerPlayChess]

If you ❤️ my videos do *subscribe* bit.ly/powerplaysubscription and do checkout the *supporting* *options* through Patreon: bit.ly/patreondanielking or through *PayPal* (links in the description)

[@alieskandari6036]

Super exiting game. It is nice to see Fabi plays for win. He is not playing conservative no matter who is playing against. I think he is preparing himself for a new style again Carlson. But first he should win this candidate tournament!!!. Nice choice of the game and fabulous annotation by GM King as usual. Thanks 👍

[@trevorochmonek9024]

To be fair, Fabi just mixed up the right move order. Rustam worked for Anand and I can suggest everybody to read the "Anand Files". After that everybody know that this e5 move was not a bluff, but a move which holds for Black. @PowerPlayChess I think you should give Caruana and his team more credit. It seems that you think Caruana played a bluff.

[@skakdosmer]

Yes, let's have a little slurp of tea indeed! Thanks, great stuff!

[@televiizija]

Pleased to say I did indeed have a slurp of tea! Thanks for the consistent coverage, Dan.

[@kotoamatsukami_5832]

Sad that Ding lost those 2 first games. He really is a beast! Thanks for the commentary

[@MusikPiratCH]

Why is this sad? It makes this tournament even more interesting. Let's hope it's played until the very end (dispite the Corona virus) ... ;)

[@ojas3464]

Wish Capablanca had this technology to annotate his play against Marshall's Gambit preparation ... Some American say don't always expect an elevator (lift) to go in the direction of pressed button (anymore than the direction of Dow Jones). Among the candidates, Carlsen tips one from the bespectacled group, and Karpov, one from the other group. As for question "Why didn't a player Resign?" .. When Reshevsky stubbornly continued in a lost position, Botvinnik wrote "Further 'Resistance' is hopeless". After losing a piece against Keres in AVRO, he played on; As also after losing his ♛ for 2 pieces in a Sicilian against Fischer. There's recorded instance in a Capablanca Memorial of a player in a completely lost position instead of resigning sealed his move; His opponent did not resume the next day, having died of heart attack!

[@thewarlordscalling6537]

FABI lost for the same reason that makes him Carlsen's most feared opponent.....machine like play/preparation.In the last WCC Carlsen remarked about how he had to "beat the computer first" when he was playing Fabi.2day was just 1 of the few exceptions when computer prep failed Fabi.

[@james64ibm]

Nah. To me he was quite clearly trying to exploit Ding's bust by going for a game of high-stakes-dares, he chose a line which was complicated, but objectively bad for black, and he kept avoiding simplifications and drawing lines to exploit Ding's insecurity and the time situation - until Ding played 30. Qf2, where Fabiano realized that the plan won't succeed, and started searching for a draw, but the game was too far gone at this point.

[@archaeopteryx7405]

I think that after 17.Bd4 Caruana went "out of the book", so he was obliged to use his brain to think and not to remember the chess engine analysis. The precise move to stay in the game, instead of 17. .Ng6 18.Qc1 +- (according to Stockfish 11 and LC0) is 17. .Rc8! 18.Ne3 and now 18...Ng6, where the retreat Qc1 is not longer possible. After the only weak move played by Ding, 18.Qf5, still 18...Rc8 is very strong and probably the only way to get a concrete compensation for the pawns. But after 18...Qc7 black is practically lost. This slight details were unnoticed by many commentators except by Magnus Carlsen during his live coverage on Chess24. Carlsen is a genius!

[@smith_und]

im happy that I came up with e5! I didn't check it too thoroughly, but in principle, it makes some sort of sense: White has undertaken drastic measures (misplacing his King), so while the king is awkward, Black should try to open the center. Wild and fun position!

[@karlholdo831]

Congratulations Ding. Great 'back to the wall' win.

[@andrewroberts8139]

Another excellent video, Daniel. Whatever the rights and wrongs of holding the tourney (and the opening ceremony was criminal), it's welcome distraction for those of us confined to barracks. Oh, and props to Danny Gormally for predicting a Ding win!

[@nikolalalev732]

Very uncharacteristic game by Fabiano, I am astonished. Absolutely mad preparation - to end with an evaluation +2? Mindboggling. Probably he hoped Ding to misstep in the time trouble, but props to the Chinese for finding all these moevs (except the inhuman Qc1) under severe pressure.

[@trevorochmonek9024]

He just mixed up the right move order. When you read the Anand files and know that Rustum is working for Fabi, it's clear that this System holds for Black.

[@ragnorak56]

I'm rooting for Fabiano to win but this was amazing game by Ding and Im happy that he is able to show what he's capable of when in top form.

[@tharkanzox1493]

Title idea for future vid: “Caruana Virus”? ...maybe too soon

[@dekaasploeg]

I would like to nominate this game for one of the best games of 2020. Put it on the list!

[@maciektrybuszewski9964]

Game of the year!!

[@maxwelljann5462]

ty

[@slavengineering8344]

Grischuk going for the Anish award of drawing every game so far, and the only contender left

[@user-ym6lc7pk1e]

Great home preparation by Caruana in the debut. That position looked very dangerous for white with their king drafty and rook out of the game for long stretch of time. But, as usual, Caruana does not like getting out of his comfort zone and once the home preparation ended he was making several indecisive moves that allowed white to consolidate and finish the game with quite ease.

[@Airhornsman]

Great game, reminiscent of Capablanca - Marshall. Does 9 ... e5 have enough play to be known as the Caruana attack, or did Fabi only chance it because he thought Ding was demoralised?

[@user-sq3fx8xy4x]

You can play the Caruana attack if you are Leela or Alpha zero.

[@MusikPiratCH]

In the live chat on Chess24 this was called the Caruana gambit. :P

[@jolly_roger2]

I think after Ding's Bd4 Fabi forgot, because of the amount of lines he had to remember, that he had to play Rc8 before Ng6, the tactics work much better on this order. That was the prepared line and engine says black has clear compensation. What do you think Danny? Or do you think Fabi went for the crazy position after Qc1 thinking Ding would misplay it with little time?

[@MusikPiratCH]

@Jolly Roger How could Fabi be sure Ding would need as many time as he did? In Fabi's place you cannot be sure, that Ding hadn't had the same position on the board during his preparation for the candidates ... By the way another aspect was mentioned on the German commentation. Niclas Huschenbeth and Ilja Zagorsky mentioned that Fabi's team forgot to take a chess set and board with them. They only relied on their laptops ... Probably that's why Fabi had difficulties in this line.

[@poopybutthole4947]

Fabi should go for a draw ding is one of the best out there even if he is not in his best day . Tx mr.King for the great analyses

[@robocop6444]

Ding's nerves, will power and fighting spirit is the stuff of champions. Fabi has also come to play for the win rather than being too cautious. Either of them would be deserved winners, they are just cut from a different cloth than the others.

[@Electronite1978]

One would have to slurp a lot of tea to find the move ;)

[@user-py7nd5pw8j]

Wat is your fide rating and online rating

[@JZChessVivaForever]

To my eyes, Fabi played all the right computer-esque moves up till move 21, when he should have gone for the drawing line starting with Re5. Not too sure if he missed the drawing line or that he just want to press on with some counterattack, but if the game was drawn, he would have remained as THE favorite to win the Candidates.

[@MusikPiratCH]

At this stage Ding was short on time. However I agree Fabi should have taken the drawing line. His decision to press on back fired on him.

[@johnnybrew1]

'Enough was enough' .. I should think so. Fabi went down in my estimation after this game.

[@chrisgroves4097]

I am still bemused by the move ...h6 by Fabi. Could it be that he was on his own at that point? Ding played in a very brilliantly human way to soak up the pressure, re-route his Queen and clear the complications in his favour. When his Queen got back on the g1-a7 diagonal it felt he had crawled back from the abyss

[@cheryllins1105]

I wonder if the ...e5 move and concept was "discovered" by Leela. It will be interesting to see if it ends up being a one off try, or a really deep concept that causes White to avoid the line. Too bad Fabi didn't go for ...Re5 followed by ...Nf4 keeping White unbalanced and uncoordinated. That would have been much more challenging for Ding. If Nepo or Grischuk had had the Black pieces in that position they wouldn't have played ...h6. Well the tournament situation isn't bad, just ½ point behind the leaders, and 11 rounds to go, and a rest day tomorrow...

[@ig2d]

End of Caruana's unbeaten run

[@Michael49637]

22.Qh3-Sf4 23.Qh4-g5 24. Qxf4-gxf4 25. Bd4-

[@bbm6993]

The queen moves shows that he forgot all prepared lines and lost the initiative. Very good Mr. King.

[@gingersam851]

Why do kings always shuffle or stagger?

[@Alumaan]

12....Be4 would have been super cool

[@dontvoteforanybody3715]

According to Daniel Kahneman in _Thinking Fast and Slow_, loss aversion is a very strong adaptive trait. Thus animals will fight harder to defend their territory than to invade one they haven't occupied before. It is so strong that even professional golfers putt more accurately when putting for par than for putting for birdie. (Even though every stroke counts the same in golf, even top-flight professional golfers subconsciously perceive a bogie as a loss, and a birdie as a gain, and therefore have a stronger aversion to a bogie than an affinity for a birdie.) I wonder if some computer whiz kid can search through databases of top-flight chess players to see if loss aversion is evident in chess play, too. I.e. do chess players fight harder when they are worse, so as not to lose, than they do when they are better, so as to win? Do top players make more inaccuracies when attacking from a better position than they do when defending an inferior position? I thought that the opposite was the case. In fact, I seem to recall several of the top players stating that the biggest thing about using a computer program is its resourcefulness in defending positions that seem worse to human evaluators. Obviously, computers don't have loss aversion; if top players are more impressed by a computer's defensive technique than its attacking technique, that would suggest they are better at attack than defense, which contradicts the loss-aversion theory.

[@shanecommins7968]

What a weird game. Considering Fabbie was in such specific preparation, i don't understand how his position went wrong so quickly.

[@uberhikari]

If your opponent plays precisely eventually you just run out of prep. After Fabi ran out of prep he got outplayed by Ding.

[@Isaiah_McIntosh]

Qf5 was outside of his preparation it was the first think. The critical mistake was h6 by Fabi which was an extremely poor move. Re5 was recommened which enters some extremely unclear waters where caruana definitely had chances. Prior to that Re5 rather than Qxc5 is also quite good entering into an extreemely unbalanced ending. Fabi seemed to have become a bit over zealous and continued in the spirit of the position by avoiding the ending. This was punished by a series of suboptimal but sufficiently precise moves by Ding while Fabi realized the lack of play and became quite desparate.

[@Isaiah_McIntosh]

@ice throne Look at the game in detail again. The knights on the kingside were well placed to threaten the king on f2 and the Queen on f4 previously. It would be nice to find some general maxim for fabi's loss here but honestly it came down to move by move calculation where his Qc5 and h6 invalidated all of his previous brilliant play.

[@Isaiah_McIntosh]

@ice throne Examine Re5 instead of h6 and Re5 instead of Qxc5. I'm sorry, I don't exactly remember the analysis of the top of my head but there's a queen sacrifice after Bxc5, Re5, Qh3,Nf4, Qg3 Nh5 Bd4!? which magnus and alireza were looking at as unbalanced but potentially better for Black especially with ding's time situation. Or instead of h6 there's possibly Re5 Qh3 Nf4 Qg3 Nh5 Qh4 and f5 here I believe was supposed to be playable and double edged. There are several tried by Black honestly but generally they are all very unbalanced and difficult so I could imagine why fabi would be hesitant to go there especially since Qf5 was not a top engine move and he probably felt there should be a smart refutation rather than the apparent chaos in some of the lines that were suggested by commentators or post game analysts. It was really a superb showing by Ding to hold nerve and calculate well.

[@ryanhastings7151]

@@Isaiah_McIntosh After 21. Bxc5 Re5, white has 22. Qh3 Nf4 23. Qh4! (instead of 23. Qg3) g5! 24. Qxf4!! gxf4 25. Bd4, which is a much better version of the queen sacrifice than in the line you mentioned. White has the two bishops for the queen and two strong central pawns, with clear compensation, especially given that black has weakened his kingside significantly with his g5/gxf4 sequence.

[@MartinUToob]

Ow! ♚🇺🇸

[@ISI.O]

We dont drink slurps of tea in Nigeria, we drink coffee, like real men.

[@arightscepter]

Well for anyone who has had Nigerian coffee that seems obvious. But drinking coffee and liking real men, to each his own.

[@ObserverZero]

Slurp of beer actually! I'd go... Let's be outrageous, without thinking too much. Ng4?? White takes which opens up the king and then I play in the queen in. I'll analyse with computer later :P

[@michaele7797]

I want to see Caruana against Magnus

[@taljechin]

Strange prep by Caruana, it looked promising early on but he must've played the wrong move order or something - or was he really thinking that he could beat Ding by just making it complicated?!? Btw, how was Trent's idea Bc2-e4 instead of Bb3 ? It looked interesting, but the game moved on quickly at that point.

[@MusikPiratCH]

Didn't Carlsen and Alireza distroy Trent's idea? It sounded like this on the live broadcast by Chess24.

[@dontvoteforanybody3715]

Why not 18 Bxf6.

[@everetmason7793]

It was disappointing to see all of Caruana’s preparation lead to such a lopsided position. It seems more of gamble at this point.

[@NickTF2]

umm, You mean how he created a massive attack with his prep? what

[@yudistiraliem135]

He should have taken the draw, which he didn’t. You can’t keep a position complicated forever, and if you’re down on material and you have clear draw, you should consider taking it. You’ve surprised the opponent and he has survived the ordeal. Objective done, props to him.

[@lazyatthedisco]

I think he made the same mistake Giri did in the first round (with Qb1-Qd3), he expected too much from his position He could have taken the draw with Re5 but didn't and it came back biting him.

[@acerimmerz]

have to credit Ding as Caruana knew he was up against a wounded animal so went for some serious prep line and Ding thwarted him and won. nothing else to say really as he could have easily lost that game but the tiger is still strong enough to fight

[@shauntaylor6040]

And that is why no one had ever played e5.

[@wmbriggz]

just curious; if the next championship is as boring as the last 2,,,,, do you think chess might move to the format of all other sports.... and make the 'challenger' event the 'championship' event?.... it does seems that the public prefers having the past champion 're=qualify'.....

[@thewarlordscalling6537]

It doesn't seem so

[@mrshebasheba6079]

Ding liren will win the 2020 candidates!

[@edlena1223]

I like your analysis very much so I hope you're not offend if I give my 2 cents. The video's move along too slowly for this fast paced world in my opinion. Maybe you could try for sub 15 minute shows.

[@johnhurley5162]

I love your comment but could you shorten it by five words so that I can pick my nose and catch up with the virus news rather than enjoy a fine game of chess.

[@PowerPlayChess]

I always tried to keep the videos under 15 minutes and then I got viewers complaining that I glossed over important moments or missed out important variations. And now I get this kind of comment. Which goes to show that you can't please all of the people all of the time...

[@edlena1223]

@@PowerPlayChess It was just my personal preference and I understand you want to reach a balance with your viewers. Maybe you can do a survey? Keep up the good work, you have a pleasing charisma and top notch analysis.

[@PowerPlayChess]

@@edlena1223 Recent historical experience tells me that a poll is not a good idea. I will continue to do my own thing - whatever that thing is :)

[@Abc-tx5hy]

He probably forgot his preparation.

[@hubertsang7418]

F

[@zhakhanr1190]

Why so many Ding 's fans here?

[@sporadicdrive5884]

He's one of the strongest players out of there so obviously he'll have a large number of fans too

[@kasparov937]

Well Ding is in the game.

[@456death654]

That bishop c2 seems more like hope chess.

[@lc0597]

not really. if black plays anything else (nbd7 for example) white is just gonna play e2-e4. it’s simply a way to avoid this inconvenience- the fact it comes with a trap doesn’t mean anything

[@lc0597]

plus it’s the engine recommendation so was most likely still prep

[@456death654]

You have a really good point, just after Qd2, I don’t really understand what black is trying to do as obviously black would have loved white to capture the bishop as This solves most if not all of blacks opening problems.

[@Isaiah_McIntosh]

Fabi had more time that he started with up until Qf5 by Ding. It was all home cooking but ding responded well in much the same way as nepo and found a practical position where fabi erred and ding punished him accordingly.

[@thewarlordscalling6537]

The Kf2 move almost got me...thin....it almost got me laughing.it looks odd if u r not an 1 of the elite.it just looks so wrong.it looks fake.it looks like machine play.it doesn't look human at all.

[@aphexon.]

Corona Caruana... nah just bad to keep on play a lost game that long.

[@robertobasile3311]

You're revolting

[@kimtaewoo3274]

It doesn't matter who will win... Magnus will crush him in the championship.