After a long battle of draws between the two Grandmasters, we have finally got a winner! And it’s the Indian Grandmaster Gukesh D! In Game 11 of the FIDE World Chess Championship Final being held in Singapore, at the Resorts World Sentosa, the 18-year-old defeated the defending World Champion Ding Liren as the Champion blundered at a crucial stage in the contest swinging the game in Gukesh’s favour. The teenager lost no time in punishing Ding Liren for his mistake after which the Champion resigned.
With the score in the World Championship match being tied at 5-5 before the start of today’s game, it was Gukesh’s golden chance to push for a win with the hopes of getting a lead for the first time in this match. He started the game with Nf3 and followed it up with a Catalan setup. With 3 moves on the board, Gukesh surprised everyone watching the game when he played the unorthodox pawn to a3. This move is so rare that that exact position had been reached only 12 times in the database before today.
Baffled by the innovative move played by his opponent, Ding Liren took 38 minutes to play his 4th move of the match! As the dust settled after the opening it was clear that Gukesh was in a better position not only on the board but was also almost an hour ahead of time. But this was soon to change as Gukesh fumbled the crucial c5 move which would have opened up the diagonal for his light-squared bishop. This misplacement got Ding back in the game as his Knights suddenly had a lot of spaces to jump to. With Ding making progress in the position, Gukesh later revealed that he was desperately trying to hold onto the situation and not lose the game on the spot.
This meant that Gukesh took a lot of time to make moves and after his 10th move required a thinking session of 1 hour 17 seconds he was almost equal on time with Ding. But after being ahead for some time, Ding slipped up and let Gukesh infiltrate his defences with the beautiful B6 move. Later it would be that area where Ding lost the match. As the situation became more and more tactical, Ding failed to make the right choices and Gukesh’s Knight successfully entered Ding’s defences with both Rooks forming a battery on the B file, it was almost game over for the Champion, except if he could find the clever Nb4 disconnecting the White Rooks. But with only 7 minutes on the clock, Ding succumbed to time pressure and instead made a stupid blunder as he moved his Queen to c8. A losing move, as it allowed white to take the central knight that once had many bright prospects. With White’s light-squared Bishop staring from afar, both Rooks glaring down the open b file, and the Knight on c5 eyeing the b7 square, it was game over for Black.
Ding Liren had no option but to resign and save his dignity. Suddenly, there is a leader in what seemed to be a World Championship Match destined to go to the Tiebreakers. And that is Gukesh D. With 6 points on the board, all Gukesh needs is 1.5 points more in the upcoming 3 matches. A win & a draw/ 2 wins/ 3 draws.
