World Chess Championship 2024 Game 10 Highlights: Players agree to draw after largely painless game

Ian Nepomniachtchi, who lost the last World Chess Championship to Ding Liren, has his say on Twitter. A rather cryptic tweet from the two-time challenger. 

"Another 99 CAPS game incoming," he posts with a yawning emoji. 

It seems that Ding has found his groove and made his intention known.

1) If Gukesh wants to win this match, he has to take chances to break up the deadlock.
2) Ding is happy to chill his way into the rapid and blitz playoffs.

“Since we have played so much chess, in half of the games we get surprised in the openings and in the other half we surprise the opponent. We are used to it. Obviously in a world championship, it’s different. But nothing new to get surprised in a chess game,” said Gukesh at the press conference. 

This is getting tense. As Gukesh says: “Obviously the cost of one game now is higher than it was before. But yeah, my approach and goal are still the same: play a good game every time. If you think about it, it’s not that different. Even if the cost of losing the first game was not that high, I would not have wanted to lose that game.” 

Both players are asked if there is something they have learnt about each other as people rather than as chess players over the course of the match. 

"I'm always the first one to arrive," smiles Ding Liren. 

Gukesh answers: "Learning a lot about chess because of the work we do in the background. But don't know if I have learnt anything new as a person."

Another draw. The seventh in a row now! 

This is one of the shortest games of the 2024 World Chess Championship. Ends in 36 moves. Both players now have five points after 10 games. 

Ding Liren clearly playing for the tiebreaks, while Gukesh might also be slightly relieved at playing out a draw with black pieces. 

So the last remaining pair of knights are off after Ding Liren casts his knight into the wilderness. Gukesh claims it with his knight and then Ding Liren responds by claiming it with a bishop.  

So we had a wild flurry of exchanges, queens and one pair each of rooks, bishop and knights all coming off the board in a short span of time. And after that cyclone has blown through the board, picking up and eliminating many pieecs o nthe board, Gukesh is left with a fractured pawn structure as he has an isolated pawn on the h file and doubled pawns on the f file. 

CLOCK SITUATION AFTER 20 moves: Ding has 1:00:54, Gukesh has 0:59:12.

So both players have paced themselves pretty decently, spending roughly an hour for their first 20 moevs. Now they have almost an hour for the next 20 moves, before they get an additional 30 minutes on their clock and a 30-second increment for every move from Move 41. 

Here are all the moves so far:

1 d4 Nf6
2 Nf3 d5
3 Bf4 e6
4 e3 c5
5 Be2 Bd6
6 dxc5 Bxc5
7 c4 O-O
8 O-O Nc6
9 Nc3 dxc4
10 Bxc4 Nh5
11 Bg5 Be7
12 Ne4 Nf6
13 Nxf6+ Bxf6
14 Qxd8 Rxd8
15 Bxf6 gxf6
16 Rfd1 Bd7
17 Rac1 Be8
18 Rxd8 Rxd8
19 Kf1 Kg7
20 a3 f5

Gukesh's bishop does a little dance around the rook on the d file. And we see a rook sacrifice as well. 

As we approach move no 20, here are the moves so far and how the game 10 has developed: 

Ding Liren bites the bullet and captures Gukesh's queen. Gukesh spends nine minutes on his next move, because he can capture the white queen with three of his pieces. The Indian teen's trying to think which move offers him a better tempo. He finally opts to capture with a rook. 

Ding has frittered away all the time advantage he had. he spent almost 25 minutes on the 11th move. And after his 11th move --- 11 Bg5 --- Ding Liren is three minutes behind Gukesh.   

Here are all the moves so far in game 10 between Ding Liren vs Gukesh: 

1 d4 Nf6
2 Nf3 d5
3 Bf4 e6
4 e3 c5
5 Be2 Bd6
6 dxc5 Bxc5
7 c4 O-O
8 O-O Nc6
9 Nc3 dxc4
10 Bxc4 Nh5
11 Bg5 Be7

The Indian challenger has spent a considerable amount of time on his 10th move before he plays 10...Nh5. 

In the other game from 2018 --- between Ding Liren's second Richard Rapport and Levon Aronian --- that this game was following, Rapport had opted for a queen swap.

Gukesh opts for a more studied approach and now forces Ding Liren to think. 

Here are all the moves:

1 d4 Nf6
2 Nf3 d5
3 Bf4 e6
4 e3 c5
5 Be2 Bd6
6 dxc5 Bxc5
7 c4 O-O
8 O-O Nc6
9 Nc3 dxc4
10 Bxc4 Nh5

CLOCK SITUATION AFTER 10 moves: Ding has 1:49:53, Gukesh has 1:27:48 

Ding not wanting to return to the board as Gukesh burns up his time. 

FIDE data shows that Ding has spent 35 percent of his time in the lounge as Gukehs mulls Move No 10. 

After Ding Liren's 10.Bxc4, Gukesh has now spent almost 20 minutes trying to think of a response. 

Stockfish, in this situation, has the following suggestions: 10...Nh5 | 10...Qe7 | 10...Qxd1

Meanwhile, Ding heads back into his room: 

After Ding Liren's 10th move, we seem to be following a game that the world champion's second played. The position we have on the board after 10.Bxc4. is a facsimile from the Richard Rapport vs Levon Aronian game from 2018 where the Hungarian Rapport, who is a second to Ding Liren, had in fact LOST WITH BLACK PIECES. 

The Indian teenager walks into the private lounge, wraps his sweatshirt on hsi chair. walks into the playing hall, and adjusts hic chair without breaking eye contact with his pieces 

So once again we had Ding Liren arriving before the game and spending some time sitting on a chair outside the fair play officer's room. He does seem to like staring out the window. 

After pretending to forget his first move, Ding Liren has "remembered" his prep pretty swiftly. 

Here we have a Queen's Pawn Game in the London System on the board. 

1 d4 Nf6
2 Nf3 d5
3 Bf4 e6
4 e3 c5
5 Be2 Bd6
6 dxc5 Bxc5
7 c4 O-O

A little bit of a mind game there from Ding Liren. He reaches out to the pieces while making his first move, halts, then withdraws. And holds his head. Is this theatrical? Surely the world champion has not forgotten his first move!?!

He finally moves 1.d4

(Fittingly, even the live broadcast seems to have gone hazy as Ding's apparent brain fog on the first move)

Ding Liren is known for his thoughtful and philosophical approach to chess. When asked about spending time thinking during a game, even though he had prepared the opening moves, he explained that chess preparation is like an iceberg. The visible part is the specific opening line, but there's a much larger, unseen body of knowledge and analysis that supports it.

He also humorously commented on the perception of him spending too much time on the clock, suggesting that time can seem to pass quickly during intense games.

Ding’s reply was a deep one: “Because there are so many lines to prepare and this was just one of the lines. Preparation is like an iceberg. You saw the position that arose (the tip of the iceberg). But there are a lot of preparations that didn’t appear on the board. It’s under the sea.”

In another press conference after Game 1, Ding was asked about spending too much time on the board, he quipped: “Time flies very quickly.”

Game 1: Ding Liren beats Gukesh with black pieces

Game 2: Draw

Game 3: Gukesh beats Ding Liren with white

Rest Day - November 28

Game 4: Draw

Game 5: Draw

Game 6: Draw

Rest Day - December 2 

Game 7: Draw

Game 8: Draw

Game 9: Draw

Game 10: Today

Gukesh 4.5-4.5 Ding Liren after nine games 

The Indian teenager, who is challenging wor the world champion's crown, was asked at one press conference why he shuts his eyes during games when he is on the board. 

FIDE data during a game had pointed out that in one game, he had spent half an hour in the first two hours with hsi eyes shut at the board. 

“I guess it’s just normal. I usually do this. I close my eyes quite often during games, and sometimes, it’s just easier to calculate with your eyes closed. Maybe at some point, it’s like, I am sitting in this room, there’s nothing else to see, so I am just closing my eyes. But mostly, I am just thinking about the position,” Gukesh explained after Game 5.

Gukesh plays game 10 with black pieces, After the draw in game 9, the Indian teenager will have three games with black compared to two games with white. 

But Gukesh says that in the cureent day and age, having black or white pieces does not have that much impact. 

“I see each game as a normal one, obviously white has a slight edge. But these days the difference is even less because of all the lines the computer comes up with. I don’t really have a preference,” Gukesh said after the second game. 

Ding Liren has acknowledged that he is aware of the criticism from former world champions like Vladimir Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen regarding his performance in the World Chess Championship. Elite GMs have been critical of him playing for draws when having the upper hand. 

Carlsen even called it "weak sauce" at some point. 

However, Ding Liren remains unfazed by these comments.

“Yeah, I saw people say that I always underestimate my position and Gukesh always overestimated it. I also saw someone saying that I was playing out draws even when I was winning. It doesn’t affect me. They’re just telling the truth,” said Ding.

December 7, TODAY: Game 10 

December 8, Sunday: Game 11

December 9, Monday: Game 12

December 10, Tuesday: Rest day 

December 11, Wednesday: Game 13 

December 12, Thursday: Game 14

December 13, Wednesday: Tie-breaks

Game 1: Ding Liren beats Gukesh with black pieces

Game 2: Draw

Game 3: Gukesh beats Ding Liren with white

Rest Day - November 28

Game 4: Draw

Game 5: Draw

Game 6: Draw

Rest Day - December 2 

Game 7: Draw

Game 8: Draw

Game 9: Draw

Rest Day - December 6

Game 10: Today | Gukesh 4.5-4.5 Ding Liren after nine games 

While the contributions of chess trainers and seconds like Grzegorz Gajewski, Richard Rapport, and Ni Hua in the preparations of Gukesh and Ding Liren have been widely discussed, the role of their family members has often gone unnoticed. Ding Liren's mother Ye Xiaoping and Gukesh's father Dr Rajini Kanth have been instrumental in providing emotional and physical support to the players during the intense World Chess Championship match. Their contributions, though less visible, are crucial to the overall success of the teams.

At Norway Chess, for example, this reporter saw first-hand how Ding's mother was a constant presence by his side, a light hand on his arm for emotional support. 

Last year, The Indian Express had alos spoken to Gukesh's father Dr Rajini Kanth about his decision to give up on his own career as an ENT surgeon to accompany his teenage son full-time. 

READ MORE: Why Gukesh’s dad and Ding Liren’s mom are the most important members of their entourage at World Chess Championship

After one of the games, both players were asked at a press conference which past world champion inspires them. 

Ding Liren picked Veselin Topalov and Magnus Carlsen as former world champions who inspire him. Gukesh, meanwhile, said, “From the start it has been Vishy sir (Viswanathan Anand). And also Fischer and Carlsen inspire me a lot.”

After Game 4, Ding Liren and Gukesh were asked if they had a time capsule and could trvale back in time to face off against any player from history, who would it be. 

“He’s no longer with us, but I would have liked to play against Mikhail Tal,” says world champion Ding Liren. 

Gukesh says Bobby Fischer. “He’s someone I really admire. It would be cool to play Fischer,” adds the Indian teen.

At the post-game press conference both Ding Liren and Gukesh were asked if they are able ot maintain a poker face, especially when an opponent makes a mistake. 

The Indian teenager said he was a relatively unexpressive player. He added that he prefers to maintain a calm and impassive demeanor during games. He admitted that while he may occasionally show emotion on the board, he generally avoids overt displays of excitement or frustration.

“In general I think I’m not a very expressive player. On the board I do show some emotion from time to time. But in general I’m more of a person who always maintains a poker face. I don’t really think too much about it,” he says while maintaining a poker face.

Ding, meanwhile, responded: "Since I am unable to see my reactions during a game, I don’t know if I am able to keep a poker face. If my opponent makes some mistake, I think I will show some expressions.”

At a press conference after a game, Gukesh and Ding Liren were asked if they had access to check the engine for just one move in Game 9, which move would it be.

The Indian teenager dismissed the idea, earnestly replying: “I wouldn’t want to cheat at any point.”

The world champion., meanwhile, had a more cheeky reply: “I did not need it at any point today. So maybe I will save it for later.”

After nine rollercoaster games, both players are deadlocked on 4.5 points each. 

Ding Liren has not won a game since Game 1. Gukesh's last victory came in Game 3. 

Both players have had their chances. But have not found that final trick to win it. 

Gukesh has appeared to have a more optimistic assessment of his position on the board, declining draw offers in two games after being in a worse position in both cases. 

In sharp contrast, Ding Liren has had a pessimistic read of his situation, offering draws when having the upper hand in two games.  

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the World Chess Championship where Game 10 starts in a few hours. As anticipation builds up, we're here to bring you the blow-by-blow updates of the game.