Singapore: Indian challenger Gukesh Dommaraju held World Champion Ding Liren of China in the second game of their World Championship 2024 match at the Sentosa Resorts here on Tuesday, opening his account in this 14-game encounter after losing the opener.
Gukesh considered the overwhelming favourite to claim the title and become the youngest ever World Champion at the age of 18, had suffered a shock defeat in the first game on Monday. So, holding Ding to a draw with black pieces was good for his confidence.
In the second game, the Indian Grandmaster seems to have stabilised the nerves that hit him on the first day. On Tuesday, the Indian teenager survived a surprise sprung by the World Champion, who opted for a rarely played line in King Pawn Opening but neutralised the position to steer the game to a draw through a three-fold repetition of moves.
Ding Liren opted for Giuoco Pianissimo of Italian Opening, which is rarely played in the international circuit, and both players decided against taking risks, avoided any major complications, and after successive exchanges, a draw was agreed by threefold repetition on move 23.
Ding, who played with white pieces, said his trainer felt that he was in a slightly inferior position after his 12th move. “My basic idea was to play carefully, and I was fine with a draw. I remembered that my second said that after 12.b3 it was 0.2 according to the computer, so I may have missed some opportunities”.
Gukesh said he was not much surprised by the opening chosen by the reigning World Champion and thought white had a slight advantage but black could survive if he played correctly.
“I just wanted to play a good game,” he said. “With Black so early in a match, you don’t want to do anything stupid. Yesterday I was feeling good, I was fresh and confident, just that I missed a few tactics which can happen to anyone at any time,” he said in the post-game press conference.
It was a tense affair as the two players gave every move a lot of thought and both decided to not take risks. Gukesh centralised his pieces, pushing Ding Liren to press for victory and make mistakes in the process.
The key moment of the game was move 14.Rdc1. Already out of preparation, Ding abandoned the open file to avoid exchanges and regroup. However, it soon became clear that his plan had backfired. “The move Rc1 is a typical idea in this kind of structure but I don’t think it’s a good move in the game, because I didn’t know how to develop while he has such a strong knight on d4. Later on, I moved the rook back to d1, which means I am not happy with rook to c1” he lamented after the game.
Ding, who is 14 years older than his opponent, did not overexert himself and avoided a time scramble and shook hands with Gukesh, who too was happy to share the point.
The Chinese GM now leads the 14-game match with one and a half points while Gukesh has half a point. The two players will meet on Wednesday for the third game before they take the first break in the three-week encounter.
The FIDE World Championship 2024 match is the first in 138 years to feature two contestants from Asia and the two players are competing for the title and a prize fund of US$2.5 million.
(IANS)
