Ding's opening choices: Part 1. Bu Xiangzhi
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Opening choice for the match.
Ding's team has two approaches:
The 1st one is to try to kill the game from the very start.
The 2nd is to get playable positions.
The second is more appealing to Ding's style.
The first one can save a lot of energy.
During the recent Olympiad, I stumbled upon the games of Bu Xianzghi.
Despite not having been such an active player during the past few years (I believe he is more focused on coaching now), he maintains his 2680-2700 rating.
The most impressive part in my eyes is when he comes to Europe to play a couple of open tournaments, where he appears to me as the old sage, who is always training, barely fighting, but when he fights, he kicks hard.
In 2023, Bu played 3 Open tournaments, winning two of them (Benasque and Biel) and getting a 2nd place in the other one (Orillas de Mar), after making short draws with the fellows Chinese 2400 kids (those who he is probably coaching).
Bu scored 5,5/9 with 6 Blacks and 3 Whites in the Olympiad. I think almost any captain would be happy with Bu's performance.
Among other Grandmasters, Bu drew both Erigajsi and Aronian with Black.
His game against Aronian drew my attention.
It seemed to me that it was an effortless draw, and knowing that Aronian doesn't give up White pieces that easily, I was surprised and curious.
Moreover, Bu played a line that is kind of fashionable nowadays, but I've always been skeptical about it.
It's the so called "Damiano Petroff", where Black forces matters as soon as move 3:
1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.Nxe5 Nxe4.
Is it possible to play chess like this? I couldn't believe it that much during the past years, so I started to investigate a little bit...
First of all, let's start with understanding why this move might be better compared to the main 3...d6.
Well, after 3...d6 4.Nf3 (not to mention the 4.Nc4, 4.Nd3 tries), 4...Nxe4, there are several possibilities for White, starting from the immediate choice of 4.Nc3, 4.d4. Besides that, there are some sidelines, such as 4.Bd3, 4.c4 and others, where White can create a fight.
After 3...Nxe4, White's only serious alternative to 4.Qe2 (played by Aronian against Bu) is 4.d4.
Carlsen recently tried 4.d3 Nf6 5.d4 against Nakamura in a Rapid playoff of the CCT final, but the e5 knight will allow Black to develop his pieces with tempo after 5...d5! and Bd6+Nc6. For your information, Carlsen won that game.
After 4.d4 Black can immediately play 4...d5, cutting away several important theoretical lines.
If White plays 5.Bd3, after 5...Nd7 we are back to a theoretical discussion, where recently Black had little to no worries, and the game is pretty much forced.
White has a few directions here, but it's not that difficult to cover them all:
The first one is 6.Nc3: now Black forces White to enter the following position after 6...Nxe5 7.dxe5 Bb4 8.0-0 Bxc3 9.bxc3 Bxc3 10.Rb1 0-0 11.Bxh7+ Kxh7 12.Qd3+ Kg8 13.Qxc3 a5!
This last move, with the idea of Ra8-a6, has been known for quite some time. Although the position looks dangerous because of the presence of opposite-colored bishops and only two pawns (f7 and g7) in front of the king, Black has had good practical results in recent games. I don't think Ding would have difficulties playing out this position with good results himself.
6.Nxd7 Bxd7 7.0-0 Bd6 has been discussed recently in the Abdusattorov-Nepomniachtchi Speed Chess blitz match, where are after 8.c4 0-0! Black seems to have an easy and logical play. White can actually end up being worse, if not careful.
In a 2024 game against Lu Shanglei, Bu faced the move 8.Qh5.
Our hero prepared the most forcing move 8...Qf6 and after 9.Nc3 Qxd4 10.Be3 Qe5 11.Qxe5 Bxe5 12.Nxd5 had to remember a long sequence of correspondence games' moves to make a draw. Apparently, Chinese players really love doing their homework!
However, Black's alternative 8...0-0 forces White to play 9.Qxd5 and after Bc6 10.Qh5 g6, Black has a more natural moves-game ahead, with Re8 to follow. I would personally prefer this kind of approach, where things can go either particularly well in best case, or not so well (but still well) in worst case. My Italian background is probably playing a role here, though, as I wasn't really eager doing my homework, especially if it was in order to make a draw.
6.0-0 has been the latest try to get a game in Abu Dhabi Open by Alexander Predke. After 6...Nxe5 7.dxe5 Nc5 White will try to play on the dark squares, starting from 8.Be3.
In their Game, David Paravyan played 8...c6, and after 9.f4 Nxd3 10.Qxd3 g6 11.Nd2, White got some played on the d4/c5 dark squares, although game ended in a draw.
Black can start with 8...Be7, and after 9.f4 play 9...d4!? 10.Bf2 Nxd3 11.Qxd3 Qd7.
Exchanging queens with both the direct 12.Qxd4, or 12.Bxd4 followed by c7-c5 can only give White problems, and otherwise Black has an easy game with c7-c5 and Qf5.
So far we have seen the advantages of this move order compared to the main lines.
In part 2 we will focus on the main move 4.Qe2, played by Aronian in our model game.
In part 3 we will see how in my opinion White can still try to create a game.
Stay tuned!
