Ding Liren ‘outplayed’ by Gukesh, but salvages draw in absolute rollercoaster at World Chess Championship

For about five hours on Tuesday, world champion Ding Liren was scrambling. He ducked threats on the board. He evaded time trouble. He walked on the edge of traps that would have led to uncomfortable pins. For five hours — to reference the popular meme — Ding was not chilling.

The summary

But eventually, Ding managed to salvage a draw out of a precarious situation in Game 7 after a 72-move defensive masterclass at the World Chess Championship to keep the contest at a level pegging. At 5 hours and 20 minutes, this was the longest game of the match so far between Ding and D Gukesh.

The world champion’s troubles on the board started early. In the past six games, Ding has emerged as the better-drilled combatant, replying on opening prep to catch his teenage opponent off guard. On Tuesday, it was his turn to fight his way out of his opponent’s best-laid plans.

Ding had just returned to his chair after a break in his private lounge when he spotted a novelty on the board from his young opponent in a line that is well known. Gukesh’s 7.Re1 (moving his rook sideways to the left by a square, rather than capturing the d5 pawn or advancing his b file pawn) was a move that caught the Chinese off guard. It took the champion 28 minutes to even fashion a response (7…dxc4, where Ding picked off an undefended pawn from Gukesh).

“When I saw this move, I had just come back from the toilet. I was totally shocked. That’s why I spent a lot of time on my response,” said Ding.

That was just the start of his troubles. At some stage in the middle game, Ding’s queen was trapped like a beached whale after making a daring breach past Gukesh’s defensive lines. For about 10 moves, it shuffled around, not doing much before finally a trade of queens put it out of its misery. Shortly afterwards, the bishops too got traded.

On the move when Gukesh captured Ding’s queen, the engine later suggested that had Gukesh brought his bishop back (32.Bg5 instead of 32.Qxf5) and let Ding take his queen instead of the other way round, he could have had a significant advantage.

“Before the queen exchange and even after it, I thought I should be winning the game,” said Gukesh.

In the nick of time

While trying to extricate himself out of trouble, Ding spent so much time on the clock that he played his 40th move — after which players get an additional 30 minutes on the clock — with just seven seconds left. That move was a huge blunder as well (instead of 40…Ke5 which he played, the world champion should have opted for 40…Nc8-b6 which would have earned him a chance to draw.)

“I was beaten many times. Firstly in the opening. Then the middle game,” Ding admitted in the post-game press conference. “I thought I was totally inferior during the game. I was getting outplayed. But like many other times, maybe the position was not so bad. And I need to have more confidence in my moves. Today’s game was an absolute rollercoaster. I was satisfied that I was not knocked out and will live to fight another day.”

Ding had been scrambling to not lose on time for the second time at the World Chess Championship after going down in similar circumstances in Game 3.

Winning Tuesday’s game would have been strategically important, as it was the halfway mark of the world chess championship. After seven games, both players have 3.5 points each.

For Gukesh, there were a few inaccuracies that allowed his grip on the game to slip. Two of those moves came close to each other: 44.Ke1 (where the computer suggested 44.Ra6) and 46.Bd1 (the computer’s suggestion 46.Ke2). These two moves allowed Ding to cling on for a draw.

While Gukesh realised he had missed his best shot at taking the lead in the best-of-14 game match, he was not too dejected that his opponent had pulled a draw out of thin air.

“Today was a missed chance. Bit of a disappointment. But he also missed some chances earlier in the match. So it’s fair we’re here,” Gukesh said before pointing out the positives from Game 7, “Obviously outplaying him from the start. The most positive thing for today was that I felt good on the board.”

For the Chinese world champion, it was a draw that was as good as a psychological win.

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