I watched a bit. Ding definitely had some great prep surprising with a French defence. Did look to be in trouble early using a lot of time but recovered. The turning point was Gukesh making a capture with a knight when it turned out he should have used the bishop that later was needed to defend a backwards pawn. Even the commentator Danya thought the Knight capture was best and got frustrated with the engine calling it questionable. Chess is hard.
Anyone play the French? I’ve tried and never got the hang of it. You end up with similar structures to the Caro but it’s tougher to develop the bishop. Have run into trouble facing it as white though.
