Yu, Yangyi – Ding, Liren

2626 2012 · Draw

French Defence, 2012: Yu Yangyi (2626) against Ding Liren (2679), with the advance 3.e5 c5 and the familiar 4.c3 structure. Black strikes at the centre with 13...f5, White answers 14.exf6 and steers the knight to c5, trading on d7. Play then shifts to the kingside — g4-g5, h4-h5 and 26.g6 — while Black seeks counterplay with 23...e5 and the rook on the c-file. The engine flags no turning point at all: 81% of White’s moves were at least good, 84% of Black’s. The repetition Qh4-Qd4 against Rc3-Rc5 ends things logically. The lesson: a well-run attack still needs the defender to slip, and here neither side did.