D Gukesh of India lost to defending champion China’s Ding Liren, in the opening round of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2024 on Monday at the Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore. Ding Liren cruised to an emphatic victory in game one, the first time in 14 years that a team has won the first game. Gukesh, a youthful World Championship competitor, will face the dark pieces in the second round tomorrow.
Ding was an hour behind Gukesh. But as the game progressed, Ding produced a few rapid counterattacking plays, led by his queen, which threw Gukesh off his game. The defending champion pressured Gukesh’s opening by threatening the diagonal with queen a5. Ding Liren hadn’t won a traditional game in 304 days when he entered the soundproofed, fishtank-style playing hall at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore for Game 1 on Monday.
Gukesh became defensive constructing a castle as he became concerned about Ding’s danger from the Queen’s side. With another defensive move, rook to d3, Ding marched ahead with his queen, securing the advantage. With time running out, Gukesh was forced to go into blitz mode towards the conclusion. His 40th move was made with one second left on the clock, but he had to make a few rapid movements to maintain time control.
Gukesh’s misstep hands Ding an easy game
Ding said, “Of course, I feel excellent I haven’t won a single classical game in a long time. Because it was the first game I thought he might be nervous at the start of the match, I tried to play something unusual that I haven’t played in a long time, and it worked perfectly.” Gukesh was burning through his clock and had the job of making eight moves in under 2 minutes.
The Indian prodigy said, “For sure I was nervous. It would be surprising if I said that I wasn’t. I calmed down after the game started. I think I surprised him and was playing good moves at the start. It was not a great game for me. When all this happened (Nb2 Qc4) it was a tactical oversight by me.”
