World Chess Championship: Gukesh shows braveheart spirit but misses winning moves
Indian Grandmaster Dommaraju Gukesh demonstrated guts and excellent preparation in the penultimate Game 13 of the World Chess Championship against title holder Ding Liren but failed to break through the Chinese’s defences, settling for a draw after a five-hour battle.
The two are tied at 6.5 points each and if Game 14 also ends in a draw tomorrow, the contest will be decided through tie-break games on Friday.
Gukesh, playing with white, opened with 1.e4, allowing Ding to respond with 1.e6 and play the French Defence, his strong suit with black pieces.
Ding had scored his first win, in the third game, with the French Defence, and Gukesh had not let him use it after that. In Game 5, Ding Liren tried to use the French Defence in response to 1.e4 by Gukesh. However, Gukesh had opted for the French Exchange Variation (1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5), opening the centre instead of going for the Advance Variation (3.e5), which keeps the centre locked and tense.
Gukesh today played the rare a3 on the seventh move, which has been played only 13 times at the world level previously. White won 38 per cent of those games, while Black won 31 per cent (source: TakeTakeTake app). Ding took 17 minutes to respond to 7.a3. Gukesh then produced a novelty with 8.Be3 instead of the usual pawn to f4, making Ding think for another 37 minutes.
The board soon developed into an imbalanced structure in which Gukesh’s pieces focused on the kingside while Ding’s were not well-placed on either side. It seemed the Indian challenger would soon storm the rival’s castling or win material. The decisive moment came on the 31st move when Gukesh, playing fast, aimed his knight at e4 to exchange it with a rook (a stronger piece than a knight) on the next move.
However, the winning continuation was to first exchange rooks in the e-file and then place the knight on e4, attacking the other rook. Gukesh went for an attractive attack, which fizzled out when Ding moved one of his rooks to f8. The game remained balanced after that and the players agreed to a draw with the three-fold repetition of rooks on the 67th move.
Gukesh was surprised he had missed an opportunity when commentators discussed it with him after the game.
However, he remained unfazed and, asked how he will handle the nerves ahead of Game 14, said, “I am just enjoying playing at this level. Yes, there will be nerves, but it is more important to enjoy the game. It surely gets more exciting towards the end of the match.”
Ding Liren appeared cool at the press briefing and, to the excitement of his fans, announced he will not quit chess after this event. Going through a bad phase before the title defence, he had said he was thinking of retiring. “I will continue playing chess with fewer matches. Perhaps play less in the classical form and more blitz,” he said, indicating that he was mentally prepared for the tie-break format.
Tie-break format
- Rapid Match: Four games with a time control of 15 minutes per player, plus a 10-second increment per move.
- Mini Rapid Match: Two games with a time control of 10 minutes per player, plus a 5-second increment per move.
- Blitz Match: Two games with a time control of 3 minutes per player, plus a 2-second increment per move.
- Sudden Death Blitz: Single games with a time control of 3 minutes per player, plus a 2-second increment per move, continuing until a winner emerges.
