Gukesh settles for draw vs Ding; over to Game Five at World Chess Championship
SINGAPORE: The scoreboard will tell you that the points from the fourth game were split. What it won’t say was the way the fourth game almost ground to a halt after both players got out of the opening with just the dark-coloured bishops off the board among the heavy-hitting pieces here on Friday.
Even though the engine maintained a more or less drawn position, the tension was palpable inside the playing hall. If both players didn’t play precise lines over the next few moves, the engines were giving a clear edge to one player.
That’s why world champion Ding Liren, and D Gukesh, the youngest candidate in history at the World Chess Championship match, took their time. There was an imminent danger of a knife-fight over the board but both players wanted to lock the draw before broadening their horizons, if possible.
It kind of resulted in a Mexican standoff with both sides potentially staring down several heavy opposition pieces but without the necessary risk. It was a lot of war but without any of the shooting. At one point, one hour elapsed for just five moves across both players.
Once both players played the recommended moves, it was a question if they wanted to be overly ambitious — like how Gukesh had been in the first game — or come back for another skirmish on Saturday. To be fair, Gukesh tried to tease out a half-chance in the endgame but it wasn’t to be.
After the match, the 18-year-old did agree that he was surprised by the opening but content with the way he reacted. “It wasn’t a completely new line for me,” he said. “Although it was a bit of a surprise. I was playing over the board from early on. I think I reacted well enough, neutralising his edge. It was a solid game and even towards the end, I had some chances to press better. With Black, it’s all you can expect.”
What should please him a lot is the way he reacted even though he was out prep — “playing over the board” — from fairly early on. It was roughly around the time the engine gave a marginal advantage to White but it didn’t last for long. “I had a rest day to recover from the tough loss and today (Friday) I was in a very good move,” Liren said after the game. “I tried to surprise my opponent and it worked well, but the advantage was small and he neutralised my initiative.”