Liren Ding left a small thread of hope on Sunday after suffering a brutal defeat that left him dejected: “In the previous World Cup I came back precisely in the twelfth game. Tomorrow I will try again.” And lo and behold, he did it, and he also turned Dommaraju Gukesh into the necessary victim to create a masterpiece of very fine strategy, just the area where the Chinese is stronger than the Indian. Now they are tied (6-6) with two games remaining. The penultimate one will be played on Wednesday.
The aforementioned precedent, in April 2023 against the Russian Ian Niepómniashi, and the extraordinary resilience that the Chinese has shown at key moments in his career encouraged leaving a window open for an epic recovery, despite the fact that the defeat the day before, after ruining a very advantageous position, it is one of those that hurts a lot. However, the first shots this Monday cooled that hope: once again, Gukesh came very well prepared. After only twelve moves, the Indian’s position, with the black pieces, seemed very comfortable; And on top of that, he had much more time than Ding, who was always hesitant, even in the face of fairly obvious moves.
However, the insecure champion was playing well, struggling to achieve a position with many pieces, avoiding the massive simplifications that would facilitate the tie that his rival was looking for. On the contrary, Gukesh reconfirmed with his thirteenth move (rook to b8) that strategic depth is his weakest (or least strong) aspect. That tower was like a screech in a well-tuned orchestra, while the champion’s pieces preserved a very promising harmony.
Everything changed from that moment on. Little by little, Ding proved that the squeak deserved punishment and found it the most annoying. Suddenly, the downtrodden player from the day before was reincarnated into the best Ding, the current world champion. The position was very annoying for Gukesh, who had to buy so much time that he was behind the Chinese also on the clock.
The situation was very critical for the youngest candidate in history. His father, Rajinikanth, paced the hallway like a caged lion, following the game on his mobile phone. Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri, commentator on Chess24, made an original assessment: “Gukesh is probably not aware of how bad he is positionally, and that can help him find the best counterplay. On the other hand, Ding knows that he has a big advantage, but he will have to take risks to win. And they are both going to be in time trouble.”
But, for the first time since the duel began, Ding’s face showed impressive self-confidence, 24 hours after suffering a tremendous blow. And that was reflected in the fact that each of his decisions was a punch to his rival’s liver. Gukesh, under great pressure on the board and on the clock, fought until it no longer made sense to do so, and gave up after 39 moves and four hours of Chinese display.
Then, at the press conference, the defeated man kept his cool and answered all the questions with aplomb: “Bad games are always there, and today I suffered one. The current score is fair although, logically, I am disappointed. But there are two games left to fight.” Ding needed four journalists to insist on the same topic: why this Monday he seemed like a totally different person, with enormous self-confidence when lack of confidence has been his main weak point throughout the duel. Apart from recounting twice that on Sunday he went to bed early, that he slept well, that before the game he took a nap and had an espresso coffee, he finally got to the point: “It was important to realize that in the previous game I would have had an excellent position by playing e6 instead of g6; and that until then he had played well. Today, forced to win, I produced one of my best games in recent years. And seeing that my advantage was a winner, I have convinced myself that there was no turning back.”
