Ding Liren and Gukesh Dommaraju played to a third successive draw in the sixth game of their world championship showdown on Sunday in Singapore, as the Indian teenager fought back from a questionable decision to refuse an early draw from an inferior position to negotiate a bloodless result after 46 moves.
Ding, the 32-year-old champion from China, played a new first move (1 d4) for the third time in three games with the favored white pieces, opting for the en vogue London System and creating structural imbalances early by doubling black’s pawns on the c-file. It was the same opening he deployed in Game 6 of his world title match with Ian Nepomniachtchi last year.
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The players
China’s Ding Liren is defending the world chess championship against fast-rising Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju. The best-of-14-games match is scheduled to take place from 23 November to 15 December at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore for an overall prize fund of $2.5m (£1.98m).
Ding became China's first men’s world chess champion by defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi last year in Kazakhstan, winning the title vacated by longtime world No 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway. But the 32-year-old from Zhejiang province has played only 44 classical games in the 19 months since winning the world title while battling personal difficulties including depression and will go off as an underdog in his first world title defense.
Gukesh, commonly known as Gukesh D, stunned the chess establishment by winning the eight-man Candidates tournament in Toronto aged 17 to become the youngest ever challenger for the world championship, finishing top of a stacked field that included Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. The 18-year-old can shatter the record for youngest ever world champion held by Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he dethroned Karpov in their 1985 rematch in Moscow.
The format
The match will consist of 14 classical games with each player awarded one point for a win and a half-point for a draw. Whoever reaches seven and a half points first will be declared the champion.
The time control for each game in the classical portion is 120 minutes per side for the first 40 moves, then 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting with move 41.
If the score is equal after 14 games, tiebreak games with faster time controls will be played:
• A match consisting of four rapid games with 15 minutes per side and a 10-second increment starting with move 1 would be played. If a player scores 2½ points or more, he would win the championship.
• If the score is still equal, a mini-match of two rapid games would be played, with 10 minutes per side and a five-second increment starting with move 1. If a player scored 1½ points or more, he would win the championship.
• If the score is equal after the rapid portion, a mini-match of two blitz games would be played, with a time control of three minutes per side and a two-second increment starting with move 1. If a player scored 1½ points or more, he would win the championship. A drawing of lots would take place before each mini-match to decide which player plays with the white pieces.
• If the blitz mini-match are tied, a single blitz game with a time control of three minutes per side and a two-second increment starting with move 1 would be played, and the winner would win the championship. A drawing of lots would decide which player plays with the white pieces. If this game was drawn, another blitz game with reversed colors would be played with the same time control, and the winner would win the championship. This process is repeated until either player wins a game.
Players are not allowed to agree to a draw before black's 40th move. A draw claim before then is only permitted if a threefold repetition or stalemate has occurred.
The schedule
Sat 23 Nov Opening ceremony and technical meeting
Sun 24 Nov Rest day
Mon 25 Nov Game 1
Tue 26 Nov Game 2
Wed 27 Nov Game 3
Thu 28 Nov Rest day
Fri 29 Nov Game 4
Sat 30 Nov Game 5
Sun 1 Dec Game 6
Mon 2 Dec Rest day
Tue 3 Dec Game 7
Wed 4 Dec Game 8
Thu 5 Dec Game 9
Fri 6 Dec Rest day
Sat 7 Dec Game 10
Sun 8 Dec Game 11
Mon 9 Dec Game 12
Tue 10 Dec Rest Day
Wed 11 Dec Game 13
Thu 12 Dec Game 14
Fri 13 Dec Tiebreaks (if necessary)
Sat 14 Dec Closing ceremony
All games start at 5pm local time, 2.30pm in India, 9am in London, 4am in New York.
Both players signaled their deep preparation by blitzing out their moves well into a fiery middlegame, where Gukesh had gained material but was forced to deal with Ding’s centralized pieces and potential counterplay.
As the game progressed, Gukesh’s attempts to press with open lines were neutralized by white’s accurate defense. The 18-year-old declined a draw offer by refusing a threefold repetition with 26...Qh4!?, instead of taking a draw by repetition with Qe7!, drawing audible gasps from the gallery assembled outside the sound-proof playing hall.
“I just thought I always have counterplay and I saw no reason to take [a draw] now,” Gukesh said. “I wanted to make a few more moves and see what happens.”
But with time pressure mounting for both players ahead of the first time control, Ding seemingly gave up his advantage with a queen exchange (34.Qc2!?). The position simplified into a rook endgame, with neither player able to find a breakthrough before the game concluded with a series of repetitions after 4hr 15min.
Game 6 of #DingGukesh finally does end in a draw by repetition, with Gukesh not punished for a risky decision to decline a draw earlier on! pic.twitter.com/3fkPgp9rJU
— chess24 (@chess24com) December 1, 2024
Ding entered the first defense of his world championship a week ago having gone 28 classical games without a win, a wretched run of form that saw him drop to 23rd in the world rankings and prompted the oddsmakers to install him as roughly a 3-1 longshot in the match.
But he sprang a major surprise in Monday’s first game by winning as black, dramatically ending the 304-day winless streak. Game 2 on Tuesday was a tame 23-move draw, before Gukesh struck back on Wednesday with a win in Game 3. The fourth and fifth games were each calm draws.
The fifth-ranked Gukesh, already the youngest ever world title challenger in the competition’s 138-year history, can shatter the record for youngest ever undisputed world champion held by Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he dethroned Anatoly Karpov in their 1985 rematch in Moscow.
“So far it’s been good,” Gukesh said when asked to assess his performance so far. “Obviously I still can improve my play. There are a lot more gamews to try and do that. It’s an equal match so far. Considering that I was also trailing after the first game, I’m happy to be here. But it’s too early to think about anything like that. We are not even halfway through the event.”
The overall score in their $2.5m showdown at Resorts World Sentosa is 3-3 ahead of Monday’s rest day. Whoever reaches seven and a half points first will be declared the champion in the scheduled three-week contest at the Equarius Hotel at the Resorts World Sentosa, an island resort off Singapore’s southern coast.
