Indian challenger D Gukesh and defending champion Ding Liren of China played out their fifth draw on the trot in a nervy eighth game of the World Chess Championship to remain level on points in Singapore on Wednesday.
The drawn match left both the players on an identical tally of 4 points each, still shy of 3.5 points in order to win the championship.
The two players signed peace after 51 moves. It was the sixth draw of the 14-round match.
The 32-year-old Liren had won the opening game while the 18-year-old Gukesh had emerged victorious in the third game.
The second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh games had ended in draws.
Liren decided against risking much and took home a draw while it was possible in a complicated position. The game lasted more than four hours.
It seemed like Gukesh would also take it given the chances Liren has misplayed in the match.
Just six more games are left to be played in the USD 2.5 million championship and if a tied result happens after 14 rounds, there will be games under faster time control to determine the winner.
The next two back-to-back games might just turn out to be crucial to the outcome of the match.
It was kind of surprising when Gukesh decided not to go for the draw initially through repetition which would have ended the game some time earlier.
“I would have taken the draw if I thought I was worse but I did not, I had to be very precise, I missed one of his resource. I am not very sure I think the position had more tricks," Gukesh later said.
"The position where I didn't repeat, I didn't think I was in much danger. I always thought with his weak king and my strong pawn on b3, I should have play. I thought maybe I might even have some chances. But okay, yeah, it was just a misjudgment of the position.”
It was an English opening by Liren who played his fourth white game and Gukesh chose for a variation favoured by Alexei Shirov.
Obviously, Gukesh has something planned for every opening and Wednesday was no exception and it was yet again Liren who had to sink in to a long thought in order to counter the black's opening idea.
The players were out of their preparation pretty early in the game. The ensuing middle game was far more complicated than the average chess buff would have imagined even with the help of computer analysis.
As it happened, Gukesh threw caution to the winds by going for an uneven pawn structure that would offer a really complicated struggle.
Gukesh thanked his team for managing to surprise Liren in the openings.
"My team they're been doing great job, not only 'Gaju' (Grzegorz Gajewski), but other team members as well, we managed to surprise him in the openings, I would like to thank my team and hopefully more interesting ideas will come," he said.
As has been the case thus far, Gukesh is the one imploring more even when he thought he could even be worse.
During the game, Liren had to sacrifice a pawn and the Chinese said it was more of a miscalculation more than anything else.
"Today during the game I didn't realise I was winning at some point," said Liren.
However, Gukesh did not find what could have been a perfect game. He played for a win nevertheless and in the end, the game reached a Bishop of opposite colours with pawns on only on the king side. The draw was just the result of another exciting game.
Gukesh will have the advantage of paying white in the next game. But, not many had thought that Liren will pose such a challenge for the Indian teenage sensation.
The Moves:
1.c4 e5 2.Nc3 Bb4 3.Nd5 Be7 4.Nf3 d6 5.g3 c6 6.Nxe7 Nxe7 7.Bg2 f6 8.0–0 Be6 9.b3 d5 10.Ba3 0–0 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. Game drawn.
