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Deadlock Continues As Gukesh Fails To Press Ding In Game 9
A 6th draw in a row, and this time with much less drama! Photo: Eng Chin An/FIDE.

Deadlock Continues As Gukesh Fails To Press Ding In Game 9

Colin_McGourty
Colin_McGourty
Staff
| 123 | Chess Event Coverage

GM Gukesh Dommaraju slipped in a promising position in game nine to allow World Champion Ding Liren to liquidate to a draw and leave the 2024 FIDE World Championship tied at 4.5-4.5 with just five games to go. The players now have a rest day on Friday before Ding will have White in two of the next three games when the battle recommences on Saturday.

Game 10 starts Saturday, December 7, at 4:00 a.m. ET / 10:00 CET /  2:30 p.m. IST / 5:00 p.m. local time in Singapore.

Match Score

Name Rating 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 Score
  Ding Liren 2728 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ . . . . . 4.5
  Gukesh Dommaraju 2783 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ . . . . . 4.5
How to watch the 2024 FIDE World Championship
You can watch the 2024 FIDE World Championship live on Chess.com/TV and on the Chess24 Twitch and YouTube channels, while GM Hikaru Nakamura is streaming on Kick. IM Andras Toth is analyzing the games in a Chessable course. 
Watch the broadcast, hosted by GM Anish Giri, GM Arturs Neiksans, and John Sargent.
The games are running out in Singapore. Photo: Eng Chin An/FIDE.

Grandmaster Game Analysis By Rafael Leitao

GM Rafael Leitao analyzes game nine of the match below.

Gukesh Switches To The Catalan

"Prediction is very difficult, especially about the future," is a quote attributed to physicist Niels Bohr (and others). Our new commentator for game nine, GM Anish Giri, declared when asked for a three-word prediction for the game, "Gukesh will win!" That didn't pan out, but his prediction when it came to chess openings proved to be spot on.

The opening phase of every world championship game is fascinating. Photo: Eng Chin An/FIDE.

By this stage in the match, both teams are under pressure to keep up a flow of new ideas. Ding was asked how the strategy has changed since game one, and explained: "In general the strategy’s the same as the first game, it’s not a must-win game, so it’s the same, but the ideas are getting less and less because we've tried a lot—that’s maybe the main difference."

The ideas are getting less and less because we've tried a lot. 

—Ding Liren

Before the game, however, Giri noted there were still options:

Don’t underestimate the width of chess openings. I was thinking about it as well, thinking about where Gukesh will go next. There are a few still unexplored territories in this match. They haven’t yet played the Catalan, an opening that you would expect to see in this match between two players who both like the Catalan Opening… I wouldn’t be surprised if today’s the day for the Catalan! 

Sure enough, 1.d4 and the Catalan, with its signature moves g3 and Bg2, soon appeared on the board.

It would turn out that Giri was the perfect player to have on hand!  

Gukesh Follows Giri-Niemann—Ding Forgets His Analysis

When 10.Bc3!? appeared on the board, it was a position that had been played in a very small number of games, but one stood out—Giri played the move and lost what he called a "traumatic" 117-move classical game to GM Hans Niemann in their match in Utrecht this August. Ding paused for 19 minutes, giving the commentators plenty of time to discuss the move and other topics. 

Giri pointed out that Niemann's move 10...Ne4!? was very natural, but after that, there would be no way back, with Black forced to play a very sharp and risky position. Ding instead opted for the healthy 10...Bb7, with Giri later saying of his own creation, "It’s not the most creative idea in the world," and while he knew what Team Gukesh was aiming for, he felt it was a relatively harmless idea.

Ding again burned up time on the clock. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

What gave it chances of success, however, was the slow speed at which Ding responded. He noted in the press conference that he knew the idea had been played by Giri but forgot about it. Later, talking to FM Mike Klein, he'd reveal more, including that he (or his friend) had been keeping an eye on the live rating list!  

So Ding was largely on his own, but his moves were strong. The first new move of the game was his 12...Rfd8, varying from the 12...Rac8 that Dutch GM Erwin l'Ami had faced in a Bundesliga game. Giri was very familiar with that game since he's worked with L'Ami, and it's likely the move also nudged Gukesh out of his precise preparation.   

Gukesh's reply 13.b4 was challenging and saw Ding stop for another 18 minutes.

"I hope Ding will not get bluffed here, because he seems worried... you might be scared of some ghosts after 13...c5!—I hope Ding will not blink here!" said Giri. He didn't, with Ding playing the move and explaining it in the press conference just as Giri had—that Black has to play c5 to prevent White from putting a pawn on the same square.

So, everything seemed to be going well for Ding, but after 16.Ba5! he fell 50 minutes behind on the clock while contemplating his options.  

Gukesh Misses His Chance

This is where things threatened to go badly wrong for Ding, since after correctly capturing on c5, he then took on f3 with his bishop instead of forcing things by capturing on c4 with his knight.

To capture on c4, however, you had to calculate a long line where any mistake would be fatal. Ding had done most of the heavy lifting but after 17...Nxc4 18.Rxc4 Qxa5 19.Qxb7 he explained he'd looked at 19...Bf8, 19...Nd5, and 19...Kf8, but not the equalizing move 19...Nd7!. His seconds told him about that after the game. 

Ding shows the Nd7 resource he missed.

After the move in the game, Gukesh had chances and was almost a full hour up on the clock, but he would only use 13 minutes to make a move that gave away his edge, 20.Qb5?!. 

Gukesh had some regrets:

Maybe this 20.Qb5 was a bit too fast. Maybe here instead of Qb5 I can do something like 20.e3 or 20.Ne5, but OK, it should be a small edge, I guess. I thought this Qb5 was actually working concretely.

Gukesh only started to think deeply when it was too late to alter the outcome of the game. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Instead, for a third time in the match with the black pieces, Ding captured the a2-pawn, and he rattled off a quick series of moves that totally equalized the position. Gukesh said he'd simply missed that after 20...Qxa2 21.Nxb6, it was so powerful to play 21...Qa7!, preparing to bring the rook to a5 and recapture the pawn if White captured on c5.

"There were a lot of tricks in the position but somehow it’s just working concretely for Black," said Gukesh, who spent 31 minutes on 22.Qb1 only to see Ding correctly defend with 22...Rb8!, while after Black's next move Giri declared the game essentially over.

The next flurry of moves saw the c5-pawn and queens disappear from the board, leaving a position that looked sure to finish in a rapid draw.

Ding Can Chill As He Has Better Of A Draw

"After that I guess I didn’t play precisely, but OK, it should just be a draw," said Gukesh, summing up what followed. We raced to an "obviously drawn" endgame, with Giri referring to online discussions about the accuracy of the players when he quipped, "The players should play as many moves as they can if they want to appear more accurate!"

For a rare moment during the match in Singapore, we had no players at the board. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

That's just what they did, with the 54 moves ensuring sky-high accuracy, since the objective evaluation of "drawn" never altered.

It wasn't quite so clear-cut, however, since Ding traded his advantage of knight vs. bishop in a position on one flank into a somewhat better rook endgame. He could finally play some chess with no time pressure and no risk.

Was he hitting back psychologically by playing on in a drawn position, just as Gukesh had in earlier games? Giri felt it was a little late for that! 

Ding seems impressively impervious to such questions of psychology, however, and revealed in the post-game press conference that he even checks social media during the event, saying that "sometimes it’s a way to release the stress after the game."

What kind of things has he read?

I saw that I’m always underestimating my position, and my opponent is always overestimating it. I also saw someone said I always make a draw, even if I’m better, but this doesn’t affect me, I think. 

I also saw someone said I always make a draw, even if I’m better, but this doesn’t affect me.

—Ding Liren

Ding has looked at home in Singapore as he never did in Astana. Photo: Eng Chin An/FIDE.

It would be a stretch to say Ding was better by the end, but Giri noted Gukesh had chosen "the worst way to defend possible," and was relishing a tricky rook endgame before Ding suddenly chose to bring proceedings to a close.

They'd ended with the most equal position of all, with bare kings, and they had exactly the same time on the clock.

That means the scores are still tied, now at 4.5-4.5, going into the third rest day, with Ding having the slight edge of three games with White in the remaining five.

The players summed up the struggle. Ding reasoned, "It means we are at the same strength, no one is clearly better in this match, so it’s going to be tough to win!". Gukesh reflected on mutual missed chances and looked forward to what's ahead: "Overall we’ve both shown fighting spirit, some entertaining chess, and five more exciting games to go!"

Overall we've both shown fighting spirit, some entertaining chess, and five more exciting games to go!

—Gukesh Dommaraju

Gukesh's attitude has remained exemplary in his first world championship match. Photo: Eng Chin An/FIDE.

When the players were asked at what moment they'd have used a chess engine during the game if they'd had the chance, they also made a draw—with both answers generating laughter.

Gukesh: “I wouldn’t want to cheat at any point!” 


Ding: “For today I didn’t have any chance, so maybe I will use it for the future!” 

After a tough three-game stretch, the players have earned their rest before the battle kicks off again on Saturday. Will one of the players break clear, or are we headed to rapid tiebreaks? As Gukesh noted, "As it gets closer and closer it’s only more exciting!"

Video Playlists

Check out Chess.com's playlist of Game Reviews and Interviews.

You can also follow along with the video recaps by your favorite partner streamers, like GM Hikaru Nakamura, GM Anish Giri, IM Levy Rozman (GothamChess), GM Ben Finegold, GM Aman Hambleton (Chessbrah), GM Arturs Neiksans, FM Nemo Zhou, Epic Chess, and Chess Dojo in the playlist here.

The 2024 FIDE World Championship in Singapore decides the next world champion. 18-year-old Indian Challenger Gukesh Dommaraju takes on Chinese Defending Champion Ding Liren in a 14-game match, with the first to 7.5 points winning. The players have two hours for 40 moves, then 30 minutes to the end of the game, with 30 seconds added each move from move 41 onwards. The prize fund is $2,500,000, with $200,000 for a win and the remaining money split equally. If tied 7-7, a playoff will take place, starting with four games of 15+10 rapid chess.

Previous world championship coverage:

Colin_McGourty
Colin McGourty

Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.

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