Chess WC: Ding survives scare, Game 7 against Gukesh ends in draw

“You can’t win a fight if you don’t throw a punch,” former world chess champion Magnus Carlsen had remarked, slamming the contestants for the world chess title, Ding Liren and Gukesh D, for playing passively in the first six games.

Taking that to heart, both players showed their mettle in Game 7 today in Singapore, where Gukesh unleashed plenty of punches but faltered to win in the face of excellent defensive moves by the defending champion.

The result notwithstanding, it was an edge-of-the-seat thriller where Ding had just seven seconds to make a decisive move, and Gukesh had barely two seconds on the clock. The longest game of the championship so far, with 67 moves played over 5 hours and 20 minutes, received a befitting applause from the audience of grandmasters and sports journalists from all over the world.

Gukesh came across as better prepared in the opening, but Ding managed to find breathing space on the board whenever he was pushed to the corner.

“Fighting for another day. I am extremely lucky not to have been knocked down today,” Ding said in the post-match conference, with his trademark smile that has won many hearts in the championship.

Gukesh opened with the Grünfeld Defence instead of 1.e4, which would have allowed Ding to respond with his strong weapon, the French Defence. Gukesh delivered the first punch on move 7 when he moved his rook to the d1 square. This move was a novelty and was played for the first time at this level in the 4,666 occurrences of the same position at the world level in chess.

Ding admitted later, “When I saw this move, I had just returned from a toilet break. It was a shocker.” The FIDE analysis of the game said, “The champion Ding Liren dodged a bullet this afternoon. After a huge blunder on move forty, it looked like the challenger was about to make his claim to become the new FIDE World Champion. The champion defended accurately but at a huge time cost and with only a few moves to go, he was under acute time pressure. With only seven seconds left on his clock, Ding Liren blundered on the last move before the time control. Instead of 40...Ke5, he should have played 40...Nc8-b6, with a blockade and very good chances to draw.”

A disappointed Gukesh tried to remain positive, “It is never pleasant to miss a winning position, but I am happy about the fact that I outplayed my opponent quite easily in the opening. I thought I should have been winning before and after the winning continuation. I missed some moves,” he said.

Gukesh set the tone for the second half of the championship when he said he was taking positives from the missed win too, “He also missed some chances earlier in the match, so it is fair that we are here – the second half will, of course, be crucial.” The players are tied at 3.5 points each at the halfway stage of seven games. The first player to score 4 points out of the remaining seven games will win the match.

Meanwhile, Gukesh was spotted playing puzzle rush on a chess website before the match. “I always play puzzles before a key match. It warms up my mind,” he said. Ding, who was seen eating ice cream (a Chinese brand has named an ice cream after him) after the match, said he usually takes a hot shower before the game.