Image of Ding Liren courtesy of Lennart Ootes
Ding defeats Carlsen with a brilliant king walk
Timing is everythingFeatured is a brilliant king walk by Ding Liren against Magnus Carlsen from the 2019 Tata Steel Chess Rapid & Blitz. The time controls for this game were 5 minutes with a 2-second increment. The opening is a Ruy Lopez, Delayed Exchange variation. Does anything happen to grab your attention about the position after Ding's 26th move? The position made me question if it is possible to improve upon Ding's brilliant idea. As black, it may be worthwhile to keep white guessing which side the black king will ultimately castle.
Magnus Carlsen vs Ding Liren, 2019 Tata Steel Chess Rapid & Blitz
Below the video I have highlighted 2 positions
https://youtu.be/AMmZTUFAdmU
Question 1 of 2: Why do you think Carlsen decided to exchange his knight for black's bad bishop?
Question 2 of 2: What prompted Ding to go for the kingwalk?
Closing words
Thank you in advance for any likes and/or follows you may give. Any questions or comments you may have can be left on YouTube or in the forum below. If you enjoyed the featured video, you may also enjoy the playlist I've created "Instructive Chess Games". I hope you have, in some way, benefited from this post. Thank you for taking the time to read. -Jerry