The Tie is Broken – Gukesh emerges with a Lead!
With only four games to go, the World Chess Championship seemed to have calmed down until the Young Indian Challenger struck in Game 11, taking the lead! With a victory in the 11th game, Gukesh D is leading the match for the first time.
Gukesh D has been going for ambitious openings against the Chinese World Champion, posing him new problems in the openings and forcing him to spend time. Many chess critics and fans have upbraided Ding for his time management in this match. Even though Ding had spent a whole hour 5 moves into the game, he was able to cope up and even get a slight edge both on the clock and on the board by move 14 before he made a penultimate mistake, 15.g6 in a position where he could have played e6 instead which looked like a natural move to the commentators. In the post-match press conference, Ding was critical of his g6 move calling it “A horrible move”! The move turned out to be a turning point in the game and the game ended for Ding with a tragic piece blunder. In the following position, Liren with about 8 minutes on the clock played Qc8??, overlooking Qxc6 which wins white a knight and the game:
Gukesh almost instantaneously played Qxc6 with a confident head nod after which the World Champion accepted his defeat and resigned the game. The match stands 6-5 in Gukesh’s favour with only 3 games to go.
On paper, the match between World Champion Ding Liren and Gukesh seemed to be a quiet one, with only two decisive games coming early during the first 3 games, one in favour of each player followed by a series of draws. However, numbers can be deceptive. In this case, both players have played enterprising chess, creating their chances, but were unable to put the games away on occasion. With Ding achieving ever so slight edges in Games 5 and 6, Gukesh getting a winning position in Game 7, and both players missing their chances in Game 8, this match could have been no short of a bloodbath, resembling the previous World Championship Match between Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren.
With the match now culminating, many believe that the match is practically over for the current World Champion, however, Ding is drawing optimism from the trenches. “Last year I also made a comeback in the 12th game with the white pieces, so I will definitely try!”, said Ding at the post-game Press Conference. It remains to be seen what’s written for us in the climax of this exciting match!
