What Openings to Expect in World Chess Championship

I would love to brush up on the openings that will be played so I can follow the games a bit easier (also feels like a good way to expand my opening knowledge).

What openings can we expect to see from Ding and Gukesh?

What are their "safe" openings, what will they play to win, what would be a small surprise, what would be a big surprise?

Thanks!

Should be a great match.

Both primarily open with the queen's pawn, so we might NOT see a lot of defenses to 1.e4 (but one could be planning to play all 1.e4 or 1.c4 to throw the other off.... we will see)

Both play the white and black side of the Queens gambit quite a bit, so I suspect were going to see some.

Gukesh plays both the Reti and the KIA, so I could see him essaying that and Ding playing a his Sicilian or his Caro-Kann against it. (that would be cool!) Look for Ding to play a KID early on to see if Gukesh has prepared something threating... if he hasn't, you will see it more than once. Gukesh plays both the Nimzo and the KID equally, However in my data base he prefers by a 2 to 1 the Queen's Gambit. The Ragozin he favors by far.

In all these, look for both to avoid chess engine analysis staying away from the strongest lines, fearing the other will have something prepared (For the most part that is what we now see at modern tournaments)

If tied.... the last two games will be either d-pawn variant, usually a London, or something like the Center game, Danish Gambit, i.e. something off main stream chess. Done with the attempt to out play the opponent in a random neutral position.

Since both tend to play similar lines in 1. d4 games, in their mutual games they actually have had two Italian games (both colors, Ding won with black pieces, the other game was drawn). Gukesh has a larger fraction of 1. e4 games, but obviously both know the theory of mainline openings at that level.

Ding plays the English sometimes, but Gukesh mostly replies with 1. ... e6, which easily transposes to QGD. Therefore some pure English line would be a surprise.

Very informative, thanks!

Despite Ding being the WC, Gukesh is somewhat the favorite to win the match. Gukesh is only 18, and quite possibly still improving. Ding's peak rating is 2799 but he has been on the downhill slide.

If Ding can find a way to become his best again Gukesh will run into an extremely tough opponent indeed.

Ding is currently rated 2728, Gukesh is 2783.

Dings peak is 2816

Ding probably learned from rapport and will play a crazy opening. I wouldn’t be surprised if gukesh wins tho.