Favorite GMI games

Nepomniachtchi vs. Ding | FIDE World Championship | Game 7 ft. Giri, Sachdev & Naroditsky (youtube.com) i

In this game I took lots of breaks and thought before they played but also I didn't immediately have comments from the GMs. This allowed me to have an idea of ​​the strong moves and the difficulty of the positions in relation to my level.

1) e4 e6 it's a big surprise but imo this is a part of an anti-Nepo strategy because Nepo seems to have "a programmed way of playing these openings with a lot of preparation".

In short imo Ding Liren purposely plays surprising moves or variations in the openings for that Nepo doesn't feel "too comfortable in the opening".

2) d4 d5 it's a critical moment because Nepo doesn't seem at all prepared to play this opening while Ding Liren "knows where he's going".

a : If Nepo plays the main line imo the problem is to land on this position after 3) Nc3 Bb4 4) e5 c5 5) a3 Bxc3+ 6) bxc3 Ne7 7) Qg4 Qc7 8) Qxg7 Rg8 9) Qxh7 cxd4 10) Ne2 Nbc6

and now Ding Liren should have in mind variations seen with the help of Stockfisch.

b : 3) e5 against bots as they may have difficulty playing closed positions it can be an anti-bot technique but against a GMI like Ding Liren imo it sounds wrong.

3) Nd2 it's the variation that made me stop playing the French Defense.

a : 3)...c5 for example 4) exd5 exd5 5) Ngf3 Nc6 6) dxc5 Bxc5 and Black plays with an isolated pawn position and in short that's kind of the problem with this variation i.e it often leads to playing a game on the theme of having an isolated pawn with Black and it's not to everyone's taste.

b : 3)...Nf6 this is the trick that eliminates the annoyance of the Tarrasch but in short I've suffered a nasty defeat after 4) e5 Nfd7 5) Bd3 c5 6) c3 Nc6 7) Ne2 Qb6 8) Nf3

3)...c5 4) Ngf3 cxd4 this move I don't find because "mechanically I'll play" 4)...Nf6 5) exd5 exd5 5) Nxd4 Nf6 I would have played 5)...e5 thinking White might have made a bad move 6) exd5 6) e5 even if it is perhaps the best move, Black is happy because "Black will fall back into a pattern of play of the French Defense" 6)...Nxd5

this position which sounds equal is difficult to me to play because I don't really have a strategic gameplay 7) N2f3 Be7 8) Bc4 this move is hard to see because I quickly eliminate of candidate moves because x)...a6-b5-Bb7 can help Black. In this position I was just thinking about 8) Be2 or 8) g3 8)...Nc6 9) Nxc6 bxc6 10) o-o o-o 11) Qe2 Bb7 12) Bd3 it's a strong move that I would never have managed to find because "it plays the Bishop twice in the opening" and 12) Rd1 seems too logical to think about playing another move 12)...Qc7 13) Qe4 and therefore thanks to the move 12) Bd3 Nepo has suddenly a game with an attacking gameplay and Black has always three islands of pawns including c6 which is weak (endgame not very safe for Ding) 13)...Nf6 14) Qh4 c5 15) Bf4 Qb6 afterwards I just followed the game with the comments.