Atreyo Mukhopadhyay in Singapore
Conditions in Singapore can be drastically different depending on where one is. Outdoors, it’s warm when it doesn’t rain. At the World Chess Championship match being played at Resorts World Sentosa, metro trains and buses, things can be freezing because of the air-conditioning. It’s a weird combination of hot and cold.
The players, too, blew hot and cold in the seventh-round game. At the end of a marathon battle which lasted over five hours, D Gukesh saw his advantage fade away gradually and painfully. Ding Liren came back from an inferior position and intense time pressure to force a draw with black pieces. This should hurt the Indian, even though the 14-game match is still tied at 3.5-3.5.
That’s because the 18-year-old Indian held a clear edge almost till the end. He came back from a pawn down to emerge superior in terms of pawns and pieces and it was up to the Chinese to defend with his back to the wall for almost the entire duration of the game. However, the defending champion kept finding the right moves under pressure to frustrate the 18-year-old. Since Gukesh let an opportunity slip and Ding has white in Round 8, the momentum might just shift towards the latter on Wednesday.
Despite going a pawn up early on, Ding seemed to have handed the initiative towards Gukesh by pondering for 28 minutes over his seventh move. Gukesh had put him into deep thought by playing an unusual rook move after castling on the king side. After around 45 minutes, the challenger had spent two minutes in making eight moves. Ding has spent nearly 45 minutes. After an hour and 40 minutes, the Indian was almost an hour ahead on the clock.
However, unlike the third game which Ding had lost under time pressure with black pieces, he came back with some strong replies. From being fidgety and looking nervous, the 32-year-old’s body language became decisively better and he kept his calm to thwart everything tried by Gukesh. But he was still behind the clock, needing to make 22 moves in 37 minutes. The Indian had an hour.
After taking a long time to think over his move, ra5, which landed him a strong position, he went back on that before playing that again. In all, he spent nearly 30 minutes over those two moves. That bettered Ding’s time situation considerably and he kept getting better. The moves he made under duress were the most accurate ones and Gukesh could not break through. In the end, it was Gukesh who had to endure some tense moments.
Considering that this was Gukesh’s game for a long time, the confidence Ding gains from this stalemate might turn out to be a significant moment in this match. The youngster had to defend under pressure in the end despite being a pawn up. The inability to convert his advantage could leave bitter taste in his mouth. The 72-move duel might also drain him mentally.