World Championship Match 2024 - Game 1 annotated

With the World Championship Match going on I thought it's a good idea to update my blog with the games annotated. I don't focus much on the variations, I prefer to explain the reason a move has been played and what the player had in his mind.

The very first game of the match was a cold shower for the young challenger. This was partially expected as this match for the world title is something entirely new for him. It reminds me Kasparov's first world title match where he was being crushed actually but eventually and gradually he raised up to the task having gained valuable experience by playing the best player in the world then. I have no doubt that Gukesh will level the score in this match at some point as soon as he settles in this new atmosphere and stops being nervous.

In the game Gukesh unleased a very dubious overambitious in my opinion novelty, which I don't think it will be repeated by any elite GM. The refutation of his novelty is not so difficult; Black hasn't castled yet and with his rook still on h8 he can play ...h7-h5 setting a difficult dilemma to White: take gxh5 and open the h-file for the black rook or push g4-g5, which ''kills'' the intended attack with f4-f5? Hard decision. I don't know whether this novelty was cooked by Gukesh, but if it was cooked by his seconds this is a serious issue as the refutation really isn't so difficult.