It’s 4-4, Ding – Gukesh in see-saw draw
4th December, 2024 by R R Vasudevan from Singapore
World Champion Ding Liren (China) had his chances, so did Challenger Gukesh Dommaraju (India) but neither could make it count, as the 8th game of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2024 presented by Google, ended in a draw leaving the scores tied 4-4 at the Equarius Hotel Sentosa, Singapore here today. Six more rounds remain to be played.
The English opening game saw a happy go lucky Ding Liren lashing out his opening moves without any issue. The game followed Aryan Chopra – Nikolas Theodorou (2023) and thanks to Team Gukesh’s tireless work, the Challenger rattled out moves quickly and with great confidence. Two minor pieces traded off early resulted in a fight for domination of the queen side. In the process, the Challenger missed a nasty pin on the diagonal, which luckily for the Indian didnt turn fatal. Black’s 26…Nac5 got punished quickly when Ding gained an upper hand through knight intervention 32. Nc6. Forced to concede an exchange, Gukesh had to resort to some aggressive tactics to save the game.
But the surprise came on the 41st move when Ding’s draw by repetition offer was spurned by the teenager. When Qg2 would have confirmed the threefold repetition, Gukesh changed the move in the last minute to Qxa2+, a move that brought a round of applause from the crowd, which was appreciative of Gukesh’s act of playing for a win despite having a suspect position. On the lighter side, we could see Master of Ceremonies GM Maurice Ashley rushing to the press conference hall thinking about Gukesh sealing the draw in a slight minus position. But “Gukesh does Gukesh things”, sidestepped the draw and pushed himself along with Ding into the battle, forcing Maurice to retreat his steps.
As fate would deem it, draw it was after 10 more moves on the 51st turn. The passed pawns running away on the queenside was enough for Ding to give back the extra material and force the draw on Gukesh. The Challenger speaking in the post match press conference conceded that he wasn’t aware of the danger and hence rejected the draw, going all out for a win.
Ding on the other hand said that never felt he was winning, though he had some plus for quite a number of moves. It goes to show that even after the halfway mark, Ding is still low in confidence. The Chinese Grandmaster would now need to move the mountain inside his mind to complete the job on hand. The block, both mental and physical, isn’t doing the world champion any good. Going this way Ding would surely upset the apple-cart and would have none to blame but his inner demons. If not set quickly, the man in a hurry, “the lion from Madras” would walk into the record books.
The ninth game begins at 5 PM Singapore time Thursday 5th December, 2024, with Challenger Gukesh Dommaraju sitting behind the white pieces. 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 Ding Liren (2728) – GM Gukesh Dommaraju (2783) 1. c4 e5 2. Nc3 Bb4 3. Nd5 Be7 4. Nf3 d6 5. g3 c6 6. Nxe7 Nxe7 7. Bg2 f6 8. O-O Be6 9. b3 d5 10. Ba3 O-O 11. Rc1 a5 12. Ne1 Re8 13. f4 exf4 14. Rxf4 dxc4 15. bxc4 Ng6 16. Re4 Na6 17. Nc2 Qc7 18. Nd4 Bf7 19. d3 Ne5 20. Nf3 Nd7 21. Rxe8+ Rxe8 22. Rb1 b5 23. cxb5 Qb6+ 24. Kf1 cxb5 25. Bb2 Bxa2 26. Bd4 Nac5 27. Rc1 Bb3 28. Qe1 Be6 29. Qf2 Rc8 30. Be3 Rc7 31. Nd4 Bf7 32. Nc6 Rxc6 33. Bxc6 Qxc6 34. Bxc5 h6 35. Ke1 b4 36. Qd4 Ne5 37. Kd2 Qg2 38. Qf2 Qd5 39. Qd4 Qg2 40. Qf2 Qd5 41. Qd4 Qa2+ 42. Rc2 Qe6 43. Qd8+ Kh7 44. Qxa5 b3 45. Rc1 Qd5 46. Qb4 Qg2 47. Qe4+ Qxe4 48. dxe4 b2 49. Rb1 Ba2 50. Rxb2 Nc4+ 51. Kc3 Nxb2 1/2-1/2
Picture Courtesy: FIDE (International Chess Federation)
