[%c_effect a5;square;a5;type;GreatFind;persistent;true] Interestingly, Ding had this position with White against Aronian in a blitz game in 2021, with the difference that the rook was on e1 and the pawn on h2. The move 11...Na5 works much better in the case of the present game, as this version is better for Black. Nepomniachtchi was evasive during the press conference when asked if he was familiar with this blitz game between Ding and Aronian, but my impression is that he was familiar with it and that helped him in making his decision. Black has other options as well:
1. d2d4  1... g8f6  2. c2c4  2... e7e6  3. g1f3  3... d7d5  4. h2h3 Much will be said about this curious and rare choice as early as move four, probably an influence of the creative GM Rapport, one of Ding's seconds. Of course, the idea didn't work in the game, but let's not be too quick to judge its merits. The job of studying openings for those who play White at the highest level is very difficult: you have to come up with ideas that your opponent hasn't studied much with the computer. In chess, as in other sports, it is easier to destroy than to create. For this reason, more and more exotic ideas are sought after. The move has no specific idea, but now we have to think about how the h2-h3 move affects Black's choice for different moves and transpositions, such as 4...c6, 4...Bb4+, 4...Be7, 4... c5 and so on. 4... d5c4 Nepomniachtchi decides to take the game to typical Queen's Gambit Accepted positions. The next moves are very natural and I believed that at some point the game would transpose to some position well known by theory, but it didn't. 5. e2e3  5... c7c5  6. f1c4  6... a7a6  7. e1g1  7... b8c6  8. b1c3  8... b7b5  9. c4d3  9... c8b7  10. a2a4  10... b5b4  11. c3e4 