World Chess Championship: No breakthrough yet as string of draws continue
World Chess Championship: No breakthrough yet as string of draws continue
There wasn’t much to choose between Ding Liren and D. Gukesh on Thursday, just as it has been for much of this match for the World chess championship.
The two previous games may have witnessed some sharp battles, though they both were drawn. Not on this night.
The ninth game at World Resorts Sentosa ended in a peaceful draw. After 54 moves, they signed the peace treaty.
FOLLOW MORE:World Chess Championship 2024 Game 9 Highlights: Game ends in a sixth consecutive draw
And the two men could have a bit more peace: they head into a rest day on Friday. They will resume their engrossing battle on Saturday with the scores still level, at 4.5-4.5. One needs 7.5 points to lift the World title.
In Game Nine, Gukesh had the white pieces. In keeping with the theme of his title match, he chose a new opening. He began by moving his Queen’s pawn by a couple of squares, and it was a Catalan Opening for the first time here.
Another theme of this match has been Ding’s struggle with the clock. He went with that theme for this game, too, as he took on his time to find the right answers to the questions posed by Gukesh’s excellent preparation, for which he had thanked his team at the press conference after the previous game.
Ding had to make 21 moves in about half an hour while Gukesh had an hour and 20 minutes. Ding, however, not for the first time here, made up for the lost time, and he even pushed Gukesh behind at one stage.
After an initial exchange of pieces, the Indian had a slightly better position, with some space advantage, but that wasn’t going to be enough at this level. The game meandered towards a dead draw position.
The queens were exchanged on the 26th move and the ending featured rook and minor pieces with an equal number of pawns on the same flank. At this level of chess, any result other than a draw was as likely as snow in Chennai.
Then there was none on the board: all the pieces and pawns were exchanged, leaving just the two kings on the board, staring at each other, just a square apart.
It was indeed an even fight. The accuracy level for both players was over 99 percent – 99.2 for Gukesh and 99.3 for Ding.
That means they were making the best possible moves – according to the computers, even — at just about every turn.
GAME 9: MOVES Gukesh vs Ding
1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 Bb4+ 4. Bd2 Be7 5. Bg2 d5 6. Nf3 0–0 7. 0–0 c6 8. Qc2 Nbd7 9. Rd1 b6 10. Bc3 Bb7 11. Nbd2 Qc7 12. Rac1 Rfd8 13. b4 c5 14. bxc5 bxc5 15. Qb2 Nb6 16. Ba5 dxc4 17. Nxc4 Bxf3 18. Bxb6 axb6 19. Bxf3 Ra6 20. Qb5 Rxa2 21. Nxb6 Qa7 22. Qb1 Rb8 23. dxc5 Ra6 24. Qb5 Bxc5 25. Qxc5 Qxb6 26. Qxb6 Raxb6 27. Rc6 Rxc6 28. Bxc6 g5
29. Kg2 Rb2 30. Kf1 Kg7 31. h3 h5 32. Ra1 Rc2 33. Bb5 Rc5 34. Bd3 Nd7 35. f4 gxf4 36. gxf4 Rc3 37. Kf2 Nc5 38. Ke3 Nxd3 39. exd3 Rc2 40. Kf3 Rd2 41. Ra3 Kg6 42. Rb3 f6 43. Ra3 Kf5 44. Ra5+ e5 45. fxe5 Rxd3+ 46. Ke2 Rxh3 47. exf6+ Kxf6 48. Kf2 h4 49. Kg2 Rg3+ 50. Kh2 Kg6 51. Rb5 Rg5 52. Rxg5+ Kxg5 53. Kh3 Kf6 54. Kxh4.
Game drawn
