Ding Liren’s world championship match with Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju remained on level terms with an uneventful 42-minute draw on Friday in the fourth game of their $2.5m meeting in Singapore.
The 32-year-old reigning champion from Zhejiang province, playing with the white pieces for the second time, caused the challenger some initial discomfort by switching to the offbeat Zukertort Opening (1 Nf3) and continuing the surprise with 5 Ba3.
But Gukesh steered the contest into a tense yet balanced middlegame, countering Ding’s queenside expansion (11 b4) with 11…c6, as both kingsides remained stable and neither gained a decisive edge.
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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.
After 24 Nxe4 and subsequent exchanges, the game transitioned into an equal rook endgame. Gukesh’s 25...c5 opened the position, but Ding countered effectively with 28 Rc1. Both players activated their kings and maneuvered their rooks skillfully, but the position remained deadlocked until a draw by repetition immediately after the first time control.
“It was not a completely new line for me,” Gukesh said afterward. “I had seen it before somewhere. But it was a bit of a surprise. I was playing over the board from very early on, but I think I reacted well enough.
“At some point I felt like he had maybe some slight edge, but I quickly neutralized it and then was kind of pushing, but [saw] it should never be anything serious for either of us.”
Ding and Gukesh finally make a draw by repetition in Game 4 — and pause to reset the pieces! #DingGukesh pic.twitter.com/C2OxjxzaSl
— chess24 (@chess24com) November 29, 2024
Ding came into the first defense of his world championship having gone 28 classical games without a win, a dreadful 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 three-time Chinese national champion arrived at the playing hall on Friday afternoon with both of his seconds for scheduled three-week match: the Hungarian Richard Rapport and Ni Hua of China.
“I had a rest day to recover from the tough loss,” Ding said. “I am in a very good mood. I chose this opening idea trying to surprise my opponent. It worked well, not so bad.”
An 18-year-old native of Chennai, the fifth-ranked Gukesh 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.
The match resumes on Saturday with Gukesh playing as white in Game 5. Whoever reaches seven and a half points first will be declared the champion in the world title encounter at the Equarius Hotel at the Resorts World Sentosa.
“I tried to play it safe [on Friday],” Ding said. “It turns out I got a little bit of an advantage. But the score is still balanced and there are more games to come.”
