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India defeated China in the seventh round of the ongoing Chess Olympiad after Gukesh took down Wei Yi on the top board in a battle that lasted almost six hours and raged on for 80 moves. Wei Yi was playing on the top board because China had prevented a Gukesh vs Ding Liren clash by resting the reigning world champion. Gukesh will take on the Chinese world champion Ding at the world chess championship in November-December this year.
Gukesh’s win over Wei Yi sealed India’s victory over China in the open section after the rest of the three boards — Yangyi Yu vs Praggnanandha, Arjun Erigaisi vs Bu Xiangzhi and Wang Yue vs GM Pentala Harikrishna — saw draws. This has been a tactic of the Chinese team at the Olympiad: they have mostly won their matches by a single win with the rest of the players opting for draws. Meanwhile, India’s tactics have been completely opposite: to steamroll oppositions by playing for victory on every board.
China’s decision to rest Ding Liren was understandable: Gukesh has been in imperious form at the Chess Olympiad, winning four games before drawing in the sixth round against Hungary’s Richard Rapport, the man who assisted Ding at the world championship where he became champion.
Ding Liren, meanwhile, has had a largely forgettable Chess Olympiad, losing his last game with white pieces against Vietnam’s Le Quang Liem. He has not managed to win a single game at the Chess Olympiad so far, drawing four before losing in the previous round.
Ding Liren has himself admitted that Gukesh would be the favourite heading into the World Championship.
“I can see my opponent (Gukesh) playing extremely well in this tournament. Maybe, he is a favourite in the World Championship Match. He also has a higher rating than me,” Ding Liren told FIDE’s social media team. “I have dropped a lot since last year, but I will fight my best to try to overcome the rating difference.”
While Ding Liren chose to sit out the clash against Gukesh, he did make the most of the rest day on Tuesday by playing football in the special exhibition game that was set up by the organisers of the Budapest Olympiad.
Chess legend Viswanathan Anand said he was not surprised by China’s tactics to rest Ding rather than throw him at the deep end with a battle against the confident Gukesh.
“Everybody suspected that it could happen. For me, it was not clear if he should duck this one or play. But only he knows how he feels. After losing with white against Liem, he must be slightly annoyed. Maybe he just took the day off. Again, Wei Yi is no slouch by any measure. They can easily field Wei Yi,” Anand said on the ChessBase India broadcast.
“If you look at momentum, stats and all, Gukesh is certainly playing much better. But think about it this way, Ding is still working hard. He’s getting through his bad form. I think Gukesh should be happy with how he’s playing. But he still has a match to play.”
READ: How Vantika Agrawal defeated a grandmaster
The Chinese grandmaster, playing with black pieces, opted for a modern variation of the Sicilian Defence against Gukesh. After a very quick start with both players blitzing thier opening moves, the match slowed down in the middle game.
By move 18, Wei Yi had an upper hand as Gukesh took a pawn on the f file (exf5). But three moves later, Wei handed back the initiative to Gukesh with a mistake: the engine showed that he should have played exf4? rather than Na5.
By move 35, the clash had entered the end game with both players having just over four minutes on the clock. At this stage, both players had three pawns each. But while Gukesh had two knights on the board, Wei Yi had a rook. Till the 35th move, both players played a very composed game but with time running out, they were forced to play quicker and calculate lesser.
After 70 moves, the position was still equal, but on his 71st move, Wei Yi blundered by trying to promote his pawn on the h file. He should have instead given a check on Gukesh’s king with his rook. This move was a decisive error in the final result. Both players had just around a minute on their clock by this stage.
On the 74th move, there was another blunder as Wei Yi moved his king to e7 (Ke7??) rather than giving a check to Gukesh’s king with his rook (Rd1+).
