Chess C’ship: Gukesh, Liren play out yet another draw in 8th game

Singapore: Indian challenger D Gukesh and defending champion Ding Liren of China played out their fifth draw on the trot in a nervy eighth game of the World Chess Championship to remain level on points here on Wednesday.

The drawn match left both the players on an identical tally of 4 points each, still shy of 3.5 points in order to win the championship.

The two players signed peace after 51 moves. It was the sixth draw of the 14-round match.

The 32-year-old Liren had won the opening game while the 18-year-old Gukesh had emerged victorious in the third game.

The second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh games had ended in draws.

Liren decided against risking much and took home a draw while it was possible in a complicated position. The game lasted more than four hours.

It seemed like Gukesh would also take it given the chances Liren has misplayed in the match.

Just six more games are left to be played in the USD 2.5 million championship and if a tied result happens after 14 rounds, there will be games under faster time control to determine the winner.

The next two back-to-back games might just turn out to be crucial to the outcome of the match.

It was kind of surprising when Gukesh decided not to go for the draw initially through repetition which would have ended the game some time earlier.

“I would have taken the draw if I thought I was worse but I did not, I had to be very precise, I missed one of his resource. I am not very sure I think the position had more tricks,” Gukesh later said.

“The position where I didn’t repeat, I didn’t think I was in much danger. I always thought with his weak king and my strong pawn on b3, I should have play. I thought maybe I might even have some chances. But okay, yeah, it was just a misjudgment of

the position.”