Gukesh strikes back, its 1.5-1.5
28th November, 2024 by R R Vasudevan from Singapore
Displaying supreme confidence Indian Grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju outplayed World Champion Ding Liren in the third game of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2024 presented by Google at Equarius Hotel Sentosa, Singapore here today. The match score remains even at 1.5-1.5 each, with 11 games remaining. Gukesh has five whites, while Ding has six whites on the card.
In the post game press conference, a visibly delighted Gukesh said, “It feels great. For the past two days I have been very happy with my play and today I managed to outplay my opponent, which was very nice.” With his first classical win over World Champion Ding Liren, the Indian teenager has sent a strong message that his nerves are behind him, be it for his moves or his body language.
The choice of Queens Gambit Declined showed Ding’s intention for a quiet but risk free game of chess. But Gukesh had other ideas, especially with the wise queen trade off just out of the opening. In what appeared to be an innocuous position, Ding chose to differ on the 13th turn from the game of Kramnik,V (2753) – Erigaisi,A (2681) Dusseldorf 2023. Having consumed time heavily by 13…Nbd7 Ding found himself on the back-foot, thanks to further aggressive moves from the Indian Grandmaster. Five more moves later Ding played 18…Rh5?? which turned out to be an unforced error costing him the game. For, the trapped black’s white squared bishop could only extract two pawns, but Gukesh went through the maze with precision, even as Ding went down on time after 37 moves.
A fine equalizing win which the Indian teenager can be truly proud of. But a bigger job awaits Gukesh in the next 11 rounds with his task cut out. Team Gukesh under the stewardship of Polish GM Grzegorz Gajewski should be very happy to be on even score after a first round loss. But they need to probe Ding further, having found a dent today.
Mark Crowther in TWIC (The Week in Chess) was prophetic on his observation about the second round, “Matches are about momentum and confidence, it has been often seen that when a player doesn’t offer much pressure with the white pieces he pays for it with the black ones the following day, a kind of chess Karma.”
A loss before the rest day can be the most painful one and Ding will find no consolation on that front. Rather, he’d do well to face the fully energised “Lion from Madras” in the fourth game with white pieces scheduled at 5 PM on Friday 29th November, 2024. The player who scores 7.5 points or more will win this 14 game match, picking up the better part of the US$2.5 million total prize fund. The match presented by Google, will be broadcast LIVE with expert commentary on the FIDE YouTube Channel.
GM Gukesh Dommaraju (2783) – GM Ding Liren (2728) 1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 e6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Nc3 c6 6. Qc2 g6 7. h3 Bf5 8. Qb3 Qb6 9. g4 Qxb3 10. axb3 Bc2 11. Bf4 h5 12. Rg1 hxg4 13. hxg4 Nbd7 14. Nd2 Rg8 15. g5 Nh5 16. Bh2 Rh8 17. f3 Ng7 18. Bg3 Rh5 19. e4 dxe4 20. fxe4 Ne6 21. Rc1 Nxd4 22. Bf2 Bg7 23. Ne2 Nxb3 24. Rxc2 Nxd2 25. Kxd2 Ne5 26. Nd4 Rd8 27. Ke2 Rh2 28. Bg2 a6 29. b3 Rd7 30. Rcc1 Ke7 31. Rcd1 Ke8 32. Bg3 Rh5 33. Nf3 Nxf3 34. Kxf3 Bd4 35. Rh1 Rxg5 36. Bh3 f5 37. Bf4 Rh5 1-0
PICTURE COURTESY: FIDE (International Chess Federation)
