Gukesh bounces back, levels score in World Chess Championship

KISS. Keep it simple, stupid. This sports policy made famous by Warden Jones, a football coach known for preparing prodigies between the age of 8 and 15, is often touted as the ‘must-follow’ policy in chess by commentators.

Young Indian grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju seemed to have followed that policy in Game 3 of the World Chess Championship when he defeated the defending champion from China, Ding Liren. This was Gukesh’s first win in the World Championship and his first ever against Ding Liren in classical chess, where he had previously lost three times.

Playing with white and down one point, Gukesh kept the game simple according to his preparation, without becoming over-ambitious. He won in 37 moves when Ding lost on time, failing to complete 40 moves in 120 minutes. Ding had barely two minutes to make the last ten moves.

Both players avoided castling, just like in the first game. Otherwise, Ding was down on material with a piece deficit. Though he had two extra pawns compared to his rival, Gukesh was set to take another piece with a brilliant bishop sacrifice. It seemed not just a loss for Ding but could be the ‘feared’ breaking point for the reigning champion. He did not seem prepared for the Queen’s Gambit line chosen by Gukesh and even confessed later in the press conference, “I was surprised by move 7, h3. I had no knowledge of the variations after that,” he said.

Gukesh began the game with 1.d4, followed by the Queen’s Gambit Opening, which has been his preferred opening compared. By move 7, the game resembled the World Rapid Game between Russian Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik and Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi from August last year.

Erigaisi, rumoured to be Gukesh’s ‘second’ (players in the World Chess Championship often employ a team of grandmasters for preparation, sometimes not officially declared), missed the winning line against Kramnik in that rapid game, but Gukesh was up to the task.

Gukesh displayed calmness, remaining seated in what commentators call a ‘meditative’ pose with eyes fixed on the 64 squares. Computer analysis showed Gukesh’s accuracy level at 96.5 per cent compared to 89 per cent for Ding. “I had to be super precise to avoid giving any drawing chances to my opponent,” he said in the post-match conference, mentioning that Ding didn’t play correctly after move 13. He said he remembered the Kramnik game but couldn’t recall the exact lines, so he calculated on the board.

Gukesh seemed well-prepared in his post-match statements too, not giving away any chinks in his armour. When asked if he felt better after the win, he said, “I felt good at the board in the last game too. I was prepared for the opening.”

Gukesh does not feel the pressure of the expectations of Indian fans and stated candidly, “In a span of four to five hours of the game, you get one or two distressing thoughts but it’s fine. The fans are a huge motivating factor for me.”