Ding Liren's Dark-Squared Bishop Dominates in the Tarrasch

Hi everyone, it's Jerry. I have an instructive game to share with you from the 2026 Chinese Team Chess Championship. Played today, April 22nd, on the white end, Ding Liren, playing against Meng Yihan. Alright, nice example game for an isolated queen pawn position. Comes out of this queen's gambit declined. We're working with classical time controls, 90 minutes each, 30 second increment throughout. With c5, we have the Tarash defense. White continues with cxd. You can also consider the simple e3, support the center, and prepare to deploy the light square bishop along its natural diagonal, being a spot to recapture on c4. With cxd and exd, this bishop can now go elsewhere, can fianchetto, but not just yet. First things first, support the all-important d4 square, Nc6, g3 only now, tension resolved, development with tempo, counterpunch, Bb6. At this early stage, white now goes hunting for a minor piece in bounds. We see Na4. Capturing on d5, not considered best here after Be6. Black has compensation for the pawn, has a lead in development. There are a couple piece captures you can go with here in response to NxN, QxN. This is a very active queen post. Current threat on f2 exerts pressure on the queen side as well. Castles, rooks on the c and d files. Is that queen going to feel so comfortable in this environment? Also, if you swipe the dark square bishop, black can force white to go uncastled and work with these open lines. Currently a threat on b3. Nb4 moves can be irritating here, calls it about equal. Alright, white does not pick up this isolated pawn after Bb6. No knight takes d5. The idea, control the pawn. Control the square right in front of the pawn, d4. So we have here Na4. Black castles here. If black preserves the bishop, okay, how purposeful is the bishop along this diagonal? In these positions, let's say after both sides castle. Bg5 with the idea to chop on d5 maybe starts to be more of a thing with this bishop, not really functioning so well. Also, knight jumps on c5 can be quite irritating. Lines where the bishop tries to support d5. Yeah, pesky knight on this c5 square. Black's approach, castles. Knight captures bishop and from here, pawn captures knight. This is considered best. Take on the double isolated pawns, have this half open file to work with, some control over that c5 square. If you take with the queen, there is a healthy follow-up move, Bb3 with tempo pointing right at that d4 square. Note in these positions, white is certainly welcome to a queen exchange going into an endgame. So Qb4, Qd2. Two things really tipping in white's favor here, bishop pair and without the queens, an isolated pawn is seen more so as a liability than an asset. Okay, not what we have here. No queen recapture on b6. It's a takes, knight. From here, knight d4 is played. White placing an emphasis on blockading the isolated pawn. Notice no routine-like move here. No castles. If you castle, d4 is a strong response. You're not given a second chance to blockade that pawn. Now it is true, white can pick up a pawn, but it's very risky to play in this way. So I'm talking about giving up this all-important light square bishop for the knight and taking on d4. Black can keep the queens out. And as white, how comfortable do you really feel with this light square weakness on h3? Unopposed light square bishop. This looks attractive. And so too does c5 followed by getting on the main diagonal. Okay, white places a priority on blockading the isolated pawn. Knight d4. Rook e8. And from here, still no castles. It's b3. And who's going to argue with putting the unopposed dark square bishop on the main diagonal? Once again, the focus is d4. If you castle, black can win a pawn. You will see a game, a few games in there with this variation. A top game, Geary versus Carlsen played out in this way with bishop e3 to follow. Not what we have here. No castles just yet. It's b3, bishop, g4. That's move 13. According to the Lichess Masters database, we have an original position. Okay, this point ready to be undermined. Knight takes knight, crashing through on e2. We have f3, throwing a punch at bishop. It is weakening the dark squares, no doubt. e3, now a hole. But there is this bishop around that can control this square if need be. Follow up is bishop d7. And now e3, h5, castles, h4, met here with g4. Now, this isn't really a good idea, capturing on h4. You're asking for knight h5, queen takes h4. Stepping over like this, you're dead. Knight takes knight, problem on e-file. You just do not split up your pawns like this. So, the response to h4, g4, black's knights are under control. f3 pawn negates the f6 knight. This knight has one forward move, but where to from there? This isolated pawn, the squares it controls, there are no knight jumps that coordinate with this pawn, we might say, by covering both in this case. White is in control here. Alright, the knight looks to reroute, not doing much on f6. I'm g5 now, h3, queen f6, pop quiz, what is your move? Pause the video if you'd like. Okay, the top move in the game, bishop b2. You can get on the main diagonal. You do not need to be there defending e3 directly. It's indirectly defended. Black's response is queen h6. Now, if rook captures e3, there is knight c2 or knight f5. In both cases, the rook and queen are hit. White picks up the exchange from here. So, not a good idea to take on e3. We have queen h6, knight c2. Everything is under control. Queen g6, queen d2, rook a to d8. Once more, blockading the pawn. Knight g5, rook a, d1. Another pop quiz, what is your move here? Pause the video if you'd like. Okay, black continues here with bishop c8. It says the only move to try and stay in the game here is with knight captures knight. I don't know you're going to find many players going with this move. Reason being, you're inviting this unopposed bishop on a fantastic square, top piece in the position, no doubt. What it has in mind, without the knight on c6 here, wants to coordinate with the queen on c2, meeting rook c1 with now challenge of the bishop. It's looking at bishop e5 here. Now, a move I was curious about, swiping this pawn. There are tricks in the air for black. Bishop b5, and now this double attack, knight f4, hitting both bishops. Okay, not what we have here. Black does not initiate the exchange on d4. It is bishop going back home, opening up the rook's eyes. Knight e2, from here knight e6 is played. If queen e6, white had calculated knight f4, giving up the e-pawn, you get the d-pawn in return. On the rook and pawn in this position, and you can address the second rank pressure with rook f2. This is a winning endgame for white. Bishop pair, very good here, and there is no taking advantage of the pin on the d-file. Knight b4 fails to knight e7. Bishop e6, you can still play. Knight e7, king f8, rook takes rook, knight takes rook, bishop a3. This is a winning endgame for white. Okay, what we have here in response to knight e2, no queen e6, knight e6, b4, no rush, d4 point, under control, and with b4, white has taken away a couple forward moves here by the knights. f5, a3, queen h6, f4, f takes g, h takes g, and from here, knight c7, getting out of the way of the bishop and rook. Now, if h3, this really does not go anywhere, and if h2 check, you can simply hide behind the pawn. And what might be nearby, rook f2, rook captures pawn. Okay, this pawn does not rush here. We have knight c7, bishop f3, this is completely lost for black. The try from here, black using the vast majority of his remaining time, plays out with bishop captures g, bishop takes bishop, black does get the piece back after queen g6, but after king h2, queen takes bishop, rook g1, yeah, this is a big problem. That unopposed bishop, now coordinating beautifully with the rook, queen f3, rook captures pawn check, king f8, careful now, don't be greedy, capturing the knight here, black will get away with the draw. The move played, if you take the knight, there's a check on f2, king h1, queen f3 check, this is a draw. Okay, white can wait to take the knight, it's knight d4, on the knight, queen covers f2 here, knight takes knight. If you do something else, let's say queen captures pawn, okay, now you can exchange queens, now there is no perpetual check, this is where you can pick up the knight, and you're simply up a piece. Just make sure to meet knight takes knight here with bishop takes knight, avoiding this follow-up. Okay, how it plays out here after knight d4, knight takes knight, queen takes knight, in full control over that d4 square in this endgame position, queen now threatening to go to f6 for checkmate. Rook d6, white piece is moving in for the kill, h3, okay, if there's some check, you can always just throw a punch right back. We have here h3, final pop quiz, what is your move? Pause the video if you'd like. Okay, there's more than one winning path, this here is a checkmate in five. At the very top, we have the move in the game, rook f7 check, king getting lured out in the center here, king takes rook follows, queen g7 check, king e6, and after move 39, rook g6 check, black resigned. If the game continued, checkmate in two from here, king f5 is the only move, the winner is now rook g5 check, meeting king e6 with rook e5 mate, or king e4 with queen d4 mate. This was a very nice positional game, as mentioned at the start, nice example game for an isolated queen pawn position, control over this d4 square throughout for white. Anyhow, your thoughts with this one, feel free as usual to leave any feedback to this video in the comment section below, I hope you enjoyed it, and maybe took a thing or two away. That's all for now, take care, bye.