Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh tried his best but could not break past a resilient defending champion Ding Liren of China and had to settle for a draw after 68 moves in the 13th and penultimate game of the World Chess championship here on Wednesday. With the scores tied at 6.5-6.5 and only one game of classical chess to go, it is only likely that the match will be extended to the tie-break stage where games of shorter duration will decide the winner.
As was expected and predicted, the 18-year-old Gukesh went for the King pawn on his opening move and yet again faced Liren’s first-choice opening in French defense. The Chinese yet again spent a lot of time in the opening phase of the game when Gukesh came out with a novel idea early, but it was clear right from the beginning that there was little for the white. The middle game saw the exchange of a couple of minor pieces that gave Gukesh’s white only a small advantage optically. And as the game progressed, it was clear that the exchange of pawns on the queen side will only lead to an equal endgame.
Gukesh, knowing fully well that this could be his last chance with the favourable colour, left no stone unturned as he kept looking for more but Liren kept his cool and traded pieces when necessary to reach a queen-plus-rook endgame that was just level. The players nevertheless fought on for a long time. The pieces changed hands and eventually it was a queen and rook plus pawns on the board.
Much as he tried, Gukesh did everything in the book to keep pushing for more even in the theoretical drawn endgame but Liren was up to the task. The game was eventually drawn to a two versus three rook-and-pawns endgame, and Gukesh played on till there was no life left in the position. Liren held fort till the very end and will go into the last game of the match as favourite.
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