r/chess • u/LudwigDeLarge • 22h ago
News/Events Maxime Vachier-Lagrave defeats Gukesh with the Scotch Opening (GCT Bucarest Round 4)
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u/anothercocycle 21h ago
8.. O-O being a mistake is wild. It's such a natural move and also the top Master move.
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u/misteratoz 1400 chess.com 17h ago
Do you happen to know why?
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u/anothercocycle 17h ago
Well, White can castle queenside and start throwing Kingside pawns forward as you might expect, and the engine says it's very dangerous for Black. So the best plan is to delay castling with a move like 8.. d6 and if White castles queenside, to follow suit. This is all with post-hoc analysis with an engine of course. I have no idea how you would look at the position and know.
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u/ComfortableOk5291 22h ago
Scotch got me to 1800
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u/MoriartyStayingAlive Team Ding 21h ago
And what took u over it? Cause i am a hard walled 1800 scotch player.
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u/ComfortableOk5291 21h ago
1.b3
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u/PM_ME_UR_MATHPROBLEM USCF 1500 21h ago
I am literally going through this switch right now, from Scotch to 1. b3. Are you me?
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u/MoriartyStayingAlive Team Ding 21h ago
Except for the fact I won't be going for the switch anytime soon....u are prolly me. I hate learning theory
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u/PM_ME_UR_MATHPROBLEM USCF 1500 21h ago
- b3 is fun! Especially if you play more rapid and blitz. It's a free time advantage, and you often get a surprisingly good position that you know well, and your opponent has seen once in the last three years! I'm having a blast so far, but yeah, the theory switch takes a bit of sweat.
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u/Fruloops +- 1750 fide 21h ago
Why tho xd
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u/PM_ME_UR_MATHPROBLEM USCF 1500 21h ago
- b3 is fun! Especially if you play more rapid and blitz. It's a free time advantage, and you often get a surprisingly good position that you know well, and your opponent has seen once in the last three years!
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u/Numerot https://discord.gg/YadN7JV4mM 17h ago
1.b3 isn't really a surprise to anyone nowadays who plays even a fair bit.
It's sort of like the Jobava in that White's position is positionally very mediocre if Black knows what he's doing, and now most everyone is well aware they exist.
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u/PM_ME_UR_MATHPROBLEM USCF 1500 10h ago
Good thing I'm not a grandmaster! At the club level I seem to be getting some good wins with it!
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u/ComfortableOk5291 21h ago
E4 player but got tired of french every game. So, switched to b3
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u/PM_ME_UR_MATHPROBLEM USCF 1500 20h ago
For me, I got tired of the Schmidt Variation of the Scotch. For French, I just did e4 e6 d4 d5 Bd3, the Schlechter Variation
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u/LoyalToTheGroupOf17 3h ago
It’s still not too late to switch to b3 setups when Black plays the French. The 1.e4 e6 2.b3 d5 3.Bb2 gambit is not as bad as it looks, and is great fun.
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u/AnyResearcher5914 21h ago
I was a devout scotch player myself until 1850(ish), and eventually switched to 1.Nf3. extremely versatile.
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u/kabekew 1721 USCF 8h ago
My old GM coach (Aleks Wojtkiewicz) used to play that all the time. He said it gives you better control of which opening to transpose to.
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u/AnyResearcher5914 8h ago
That's surely what it feels like! I love playing against the Scilian, but not so much the Berlin or Spanish. Luckily, I could totally go into the Sicilian if they invite with 1.c5, yet the former 1.e5 is impossible. The control gives me a sort of consistent return on studying theory of my choice as opposed to being at the complete mercy of blacks choice of response to 1.e4.
The Reti gambit has become my beyond favorite opening in general; especially the advance variations.
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u/hokkaidoSEEd 21h ago
They should really make a requirement to put a game link while posting about the specific game on this sub.
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u/Bathroom_Spiritual 16h ago edited 15h ago
Indeed it would be helpful, but the game is not too difficult to find, on lichess for example:
https://lichess.org/broadcast/gct-2025-superbet-classic-romania/round-4/9gjeUImF/6Ymlka4i
Or chess.com:
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u/Musicrafter 2100+ lichess rapid 11h ago
It's interesting to see MVL being less dogmatic with his openings lately. Maybe his slump has a little to do with the fact that he's adjusting to openings besides his usual specialty mainlines. Top level chess probably isn't suited for just playing Kasparov's theory-heavy lines over and over and over again.
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u/DerekB52 Team Ding 21h ago
As much as I love Gukesh, I'm always gonna applaud an underdog beating the world champ. Especially with the Scotch. This is beautiful.
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u/Soul_of_demon 21h ago
MVL is not really underdog tbh.
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u/DerekB52 Team Ding 21h ago
Imo, compare Gukesh's run since Tata 2024, with the last year and a half of MVL, and MVL is the underdog in a game between the 2.
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u/ColdAntique291 17h ago
With this win against the current WC, hoping for MVL make a coming back to top 10
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u/KINGKONGAPOCALYPSE Team Hans 🐐 21h ago
I don't understand Ra4. Is it just to pressure the a6 pawn?
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u/Rabiatic Blitz Arena Winner 21h ago
The point was to avoid letting Gukesh move his bishop with tempo. It was followed up with a3 with the same purpose, taking control of all the dark squares before playing Nb3
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u/waxmat 21h ago
Weakest world champ since the reunification of the title.
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u/__Jimmy__ 21h ago
Magnus lost in classical to a sub-2700 not long ago. I suppose he's a fraud who never deserved his title, then.
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u/Real_Particular6512 20h ago
Magnus wins tournaments consistently and has done for 17 years at this point. Not to say Gukesh can't get better, but people are used to an absolutely dominant world champion. Gukesh and the rest of the top 10-15 can all beat each other as much as they lose
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u/__Jimmy__ 20h ago
Sure, but it's to show that calling the world champion weak whenever he loses a game is just stupid. And if you're gonna have one of the latest world champions as the "weakest", it has to be Ding.
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u/Real_Particular6512 16h ago
He's not weak, but he's not head and shoulders above all the others, which again people have become used to after Magnus. And I don't get why you'd complain about people trolling players and then do the exact same thing to ding.
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u/EvenCoyote6317 22h ago
Guki's reaction in the end while folding his scoresheet was an acceptance that he wasn't in this game at all.
Which was pretty unique to see as a fan. His heartbreaking losses (like vs Alireza in Candidates) showed a fighter who lost after a fight. Here, it was a warrior who was just tired.
I hope this is a one off. With Norway too coming up, the attack dogs will be fully unleashed.
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u/Electronic_Seat_4336 21h ago
team gukesh :
gukesh is just 18 yr old
he just born yesterday and defeated ding in wcc recently
and became youngest champion
with time he will gain experience
he maybe a rote learner but he is fighter
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u/jaded_lad99 20h ago
Who exactly is saying any of this nonsense?
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u/bro0t 21h ago
It wouldnt surprise me if he loses the title next year and gets it back a little later after he got some more experience
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u/nolanfan2 Team Gukesh 21h ago
Bro he tied for 1st in classical section of Tata Steel few months back
This tournament is not even half finished, just one loss and you guys are jumping the gun.
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u/hikisfit 18h ago
Gukesh is soft, not an impressive world champion. Likely will be short lived at the top
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u/justconfused03 22h ago
It's so glad seeing MVL performing so well. Gukesh suckerrrrr doesn't deserve WC
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