World Chess Championship 2024 Game 2 As It Happened: Gukesh vs Ding Liren 2nd game ends in draw after 23 moves

In his first game with white pieces against Gukesh in the 2024 World Chess Championship, Ding Liren chose to play the Giuco Pianissimo Variation of the Italian Game.

Here's our handy chess explainer on what that opening variation tried to accomplish.

The key moment of the game was move 14.Rdc1, states the FIDE release.

Already out of preparation, Ding Liren abandoned the open file in order to avoid exchanges and regroup. However, it soon became clear that his plan had backfired. “The move Rc1 is a typical idea in this kind of structure but I don’t think it’s a good move in the game, because I didn’t know how to develop while he has such a strong knight on d4. In fact, later on, I moved the rook back to d1, which means I am not happy with rook to c1” he lamented after the game.

“I just wanted to play a good game,” Gukesh said at the press conference after the second game ended in a draw. “With Black so early in a match you don’t want to do anything stupid. Yesterday I was feeling good, I was fresh and confident, just that I missed a few tactics which can happen to anyone at any time”.

After the second game ended in a draw, Ding Liren said, “My basic idea was to play carefully, and I was fine with a draw. I remembered that my second said that after 12.b3 it was 0.2 according to the computer, so I may have missed some opportunities”. 

"I think today there were moments where he could feel that he could go on a path where it could be dangerous for him. But Gukesh had a very good sense in this game. He had to make decisions. He got surprised when Ding played rook c1. He played very well and made some great decisions there in the game," says chess legend Judit Polgar on the Chess24 commentary. 

Over on the Chess24 commentary, Judit Polgar was surprised by Gukesh accepting the draw by repitition. She thought Gukesh would go for it. 

"But I think it was a smart result. Smart decision by Gukesh. After all, he's not better and he's not showing that by any means I want to take the chance and create something out of this. 

Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri shares his opinion on the second game of the World Chess Championship, which ended in a draw.

"Understandable draw, given the colors. This early in the match, Ding content to preserve the lead, while Gukesh content to recover from a loss and recharge for the white game tomorrow," says Anish Giri on X. 

Both players are asked what they expect tomorrow in Game 3. Game 3 comes right before the first rest day of the 2024 World Chess Championship. 

"There will be a big fight, because he is down a point and he's playing with white pieces. I'm ready for a fight," says Ding.

"I will just try to play a good game. The only thing you can do to win is play a good game," smiles Gukesh as the press conference ends. 

And now it's Gukesh's turn to smile. Answering a question about how he had managed to spend his time after yesterday, Gukesh breaks into a smile while answering. 

The nerves that the Indian teenager was feeling in Game 1 seem to have settled a little, particularly after Ding has thrown two opening novelties at Gukesh and the Indian has managed to survive. 

Gukesh is asked if he thoguht he played well in the game. 

"Yeah. After I was surprised in the opening I reacted pretty decently. I didn't give him any serious chances. It was a solid game with black, which is nice," says Gukesh. 

Gueksh is asked if he just wanted to get half a point on the board in today's game with a draw.

"I did not think about those things. I just wanted to play a good game," says the youngest ever challenger at a world chess championship. 

He explains: "With black pieces, so early in the match, it's nowhere close to a must-win situation. So I was not going to do anything stupid. Just wanted to play a good game. Yesterday I was feeling good as well. I was fresh and confident. I missed a few tactics which can happen to anyone. I wouldn't say today was about applying the brakes or anything."

Just like his teenage rival, Ding Liren also seems to be happy with a draw in Game 2. He maintains the staus quo, staying a full point ahead of his Indian rival after two games. He was grinning widely at the press conference. 

Gukesh, asked about his trainer Gregorz Gajewski's role after his defeat in Game 1, says: "We already knew what could happen. Losing is part of the game. It was not a shock. Sticking to our plan. Gaju (Gajewski) not just helping me with chess, he's helping me mentally as well. He said a few things which helped me recover quickly. Today was a good day. Hopefully have a few more good days here." 

"A draw with black pieces in a World Chess Championship is always nice," says Gukesh when asked about what he feels about today's game.

"It's a long event," he adds. 

Some smiles on the board as Gukesh and Ding Liren choose to accept a draw. Both players will be happy with this. Ding Liren posed a lot of questions off Gukehs in the openiong. But the Indian teenager neutralised the game very well. 

The players have a draw after 23 moves on the board from each one. 

There is a threefolds repitition on the board with Gukesh and Ding Liren hopping aroung their knights.

In contrast to the first game, where bpoth players had not spoken after the handshake, today we see a conversation between the two players after the draw. 

Here's a look at how the game has shaped up so far. Ding now losing plenty of time thinking as well. Gukesh is just six minutes on the clock compared to Ding Liren after 18 moves each. This means that Gukesh has 46 minutes for his 22 moves befoer he gets the additional bonus. Ding has 51 minutes. 

In the FIDE live broadcast, Vishy Anand is asked about Gukesh's composure after losing the first game. The 18-year-old seemed to take the defeat in hsi stride, telling the media that the defeat only makes the match more exciting and that it was a long match. 

"It's definitely very impressive. He kept himself very calm at the press conference. Very much in control And I think, he takes these things in his stride. He's a huge example," says Anand. 

Analysing the second game on the official broadcast, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand said that Ding Liren had 'won battle of opening' stage in Game 2. 'For me at least, it's hard to get away from the feeling that Ding won the opening battle (in Game 2). This is a dream advantage in the World Chess Championship. it's not much, but it's all yours. Black is not playing for much yet. You really need some mistake on Ding's part for black to play for something. Whereas for black it can get unpleasant quite easily.'

"Gukesh lost yesterday, but he had his chances. It wasn't as straightforward as my game (his opening match defeat to Veselin Topalov in the 2010 World Chess Championship). So his approache wasn't wrong, but then he kind of blew it in the end. It was not like he messed up a move and then lost. It was a struggle for him," says Anand o nthe FIDE YouTube commentary.  

"Today it's fair to say that Ding Liren has won the opening battle. Very hard to predict exaxctly this system. This system would give a fairly stable advantage. It's not something you expect. I think Gukehs is now well past the stage where he thought he had equalised quite easily. This must feel strrange. Basically you can't change the characters of the game that easily," adds Anand. 

Ding has now spent almost 30 minutes thinking about his two moves. Here's what the board looks like after 16 moves each. Still a long way to go in this match.

1 e4 e5
2 Nf3 Nc6
3 Bc4 Bc5
4 d3 Nf6
5 Nc3 a6
6 a4 d6
7 O-O h6
8 Be3 Be6
9 a5 Bxc4
10 dxc4 O-O
11 Bxc5 dxc5
12 b3 Qxd1
13 Rfxd1 Rad8
14 Rdc1 Nd4
15 Ne1 Rd6
16 Kf1 g6

Gukesh has a 50-minute disadvantage on the clock after 14 moves already. This is in complete contrast with the first game where we saw Ding under time pressure. Ding had in fact spent the first four hours of the first game seated in his chair. He had only left it after the players had crossed the time control. 

Today, though, Ding has been walking around. 

Gukesh meditating as he contemplates his move. Is he feeling the heat again?

The pieces are almost lining up on the c file but you get the sense that Ding Liren is preparing for a full-blooded assault. 

Gukesh has 33 minutes less on his clock compared to Ding Liren. The Chinese world champion has clearly relied heavily on his preparation to outfox the Indian in game 2.  

Here are the first 13 moves from both players on the board. 

1 e4 e5
2 Nf3 Nc6
3 Bc4 Bc5
4 d3 Nf6
5 Nc3 a6
6 a4 d6
7 O-O h6
8 Be3 Be6
9 a5 Bxc4
10 dxc4 O-O
11 Bxc5 dxc5
12 b3 Qxd1
13 Rfxd1 Rad8

Right after exchanging his queen for Ding Liren's queen, Gukesh has thrown a rook on his last rank in the line of fire by lining it up against Ding Liren's rook on the d file. Will Ding capture? A rook exchange may not particulalry help him too much. because after Ding captures Gukesh's rook, the Indian will recapture the square anyway with his second rook thereby controlling the d file anyway.

A look at the game clocks also tells us that Gukesh is 25 mintues behind Ding Liren in Game 2. 

Bold move from Gukesh! He takes Ding Liren's queen with his 12th move. Ding Liren responds by capturing back Gukesh's queen with his necxt move with a rook. 

The queens, the most powerful marauders on the chess board, are off the board! 

Ding Liren has played his first 12 moves in just under five minutes, in stark contrast from yesterday's game 1 where he got tangled up by move 7, spending almost 25 mintues on that move itself. He had fallen back almost 50 minutes on the clock compared to his young opponent at one stage. 

Today, though, he's clearly still in his prep.

The commentators on the official FIDE YouTube handle say that the position on the board we have now was checked on a cloud database just yesterday by an anonymous account. Have Ding Liren's plans been leaked again? 

Remember, last year when Ding was playing against Ian Nepomniachtchi, some of his prep was leaked online. 

We have the four bishops all standing eyeball to eyeball against each other daring the other to capture.

Unlike yesterday's game, it's Gukesh who is now in a long period of thought after we see the Giuoco Pianissimo, Italian Four Knights Variation in the Italian Game. 

Ding Liren, who famously waited until the 31st move to castle yesterday, has now castled on move 7. The lines are clear for Gukesh to castle as well. But he's contemplating it. He's probably wary of Ding's bishop coming to put pressure on the knight on the king-side, which will mean Gukesh has to kick it out with his h pawn. That will weaken the defences in front of his castled king. 

Here's what the game looks like so far:

So here we go. Ding rarely plays e4 with white. Ding again opts for an unusual opening idea after trying the French Defence in the first game.We have the Italian Game: Giuco Pianissimo variation on the board. Here are the first five moves from both players:1 e4 e52 Nf3 Nc63 Bc4 Bc54 d3 Nf65 Nc3 a6

Just like Game 1, Gukesh is the first one into the "fishtank". Ding Liren enters about five minutes later than his 18-year-old opponent. By the time Ding Liren enters, Gukesh has already adjusted his chair, adjusted his pieces on the board and done a bit of meditation. We're minutes away from the first move of game 2. 

Former world champion Magnus Carlsen on why this defeat might actually be good got Gukesh."I almost feel like a little bit of this was also Gukesh losing the game, as opposed to Ding Liren sort of willing it to a victory. This was a very good performance by Ding. Clearly, his best performance in a long time. But it was also a terrible performance (from Gukesh). It's hard to understand how bad this was from Gukesh. Gukesh didn't make a single good decision basically the whole game. Everything was wrong. He made an aggressive opening choice, but after that, it was just all..."This is the worst possible start. Maybe that will give Gukesh some relief. Well, I cannot really play worse than I did today, because this was... Imagine you just do sort of everything wrong. You let Ding outplay you. Not that Ding didn't take it, because he made a lot of good decisions himself, but then also when you're led a little bit back into the game, then you overthink it and lose without a fight," said Carlsen on the Take Take Take app. 

Magnus Carlsen spoke about what had happened to Gukesh in the first game of the World Chess Championship, that had led to defeat with white pieces agaionst the world champion Ding Liren.

"I'm sure Gukesh knows about this whole thing. I felt it myself back in the day (in 2013 World Championship against Viswanathan Anand). Everybody talks about it. The world championship is a bit different. You feel a different kind of pressure. No matter how much people tell you about it, you cannot be completely prepared for it. So you see people again and again and again: in their first match, they were a bit shaky at the start. I was shaky. I think Ian Nepomniachtchi was that against me. Ding Liren was very much so in his first match. That's why a lot of us, or some of us, probably thought that the very first games would be a time where Ding Liren, if he has it in him, which I think also people were not sure about, that was his time to strike because it was likely that Gukesh would be excessively nervous," Carlsen said on the Take Take Take app.

Carlsen added: "Ding played the French which was an excellent psychological choice. He had a concrete target to put a knife in. Obviously, Gukesh's preparation was not great, but his overall strategy and mindset, I think, were surprisingly good. Gukesh, for his fans, he was every bit as shaky as you might fear. I escaped with a draw in my first game against Anand. If I hadn't, who knows, history could have been a little bit different, but certainly this was the most interesting outcome of the first game."

Former world champion Magnus Carlsen has spoken about the performance of his succesor on the throne and why that bodes well for the rest of the World Chess Championship.

"This first result means that we are much more likely, I think, now to see an even match. Gukesh was nervous today, which is not a surprise. But what was a surprise to me, and I think a lot of others, is how ready Ding Liren was to take his chance. That was pretty impressive. I was following the game on the app, and I couldn't believe my eyes when I was seeing how quickly Ding was playing, and the confidence he was playing with around those times. Because it's not like any of his moves individually are that difficult, it's just that actually playing them, moving forward, spotting all those little tactics that he had to spot in order for this to work, it was not reminiscent of the Ding we've seen recently," Carlsen said on the Take Take Take app. 

"I think if you're a Ding fan, that has got to be super, super encouraging. For Levy, I think, and for chess fans, you want this to be an even contest. That was tremendously exciting to see," the Norwegian world no 1 added.

The world chess championship is a battle between two players. One is usually the reigning champion, in this case Ding Liren. The other is a challenger, in this case Gukesh, who qualifies by winning the Candidates tournament. The event is a 14-game match. The first player to reach 7.5 points will be the winner. But in the case of both players being tied on points after 14 games, tiebreaks (matches in faster time control) will be played the next day to decide the winner.

In a game, each player will have 120 minutes for the first 40 moves. On the 41st move, they get 30 additional minutes for the rest of the game. They also start getting 30 additional seconds on their clock starting from move 41.

Before the start of the World Chess Championship match between Gukesh and Ding Liren, both players were given the opportunity to select their chairs for the upcoming games. While Ding Liren opted for a conventional office chair, Gukesh made a striking choice, selecting a high-backed gaming chair. This seemingly minor detail sparked discussions among chess enthusiasts, with some interpreting it as a symbolic gesture of confidence and aggression. It almost reflected their state of mind coming into the battle.

Grandmaster Anish Giri even commented on Twitter that Gukesh's imposing chair seemed to dominate the stage. This playful observation highlighted the psychological aspect of chess, where even the smallest details can have a significant impact on a player's mindset and performance.

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Despite Ding Liren winning Game 1 with black pieces, chess legend Susan Polgar said that there is no reason for Gukesh to panic.

“Ding scored his first classical game win in a long time! Gukesh just has to regroup and get the momentum back in game 2.Ding never lead in his previous World Championship match until the end. Gukesh has to adjust his time management and mindset. Still a long match. Not time to panic,” legendary player Susan Polgar posted on her Instagram account.

Hikaru Nakamura, the world no 2, had predicted that things were looking ominous for Ding Liren in the lead up to the World Chess Championship.

But he, like a lot of other top grandmasters, were left surpirsed by what transpired in Game 1.

“Frankly, I have nothing to say other than that I am speechless. I tip my hat to Ding because frankly like most of the other pundits I really did not see Ding coming up firing like this and winning the first game. On top of that, it was a game where he shows great class!” said Hikaru Nakamura on his YouTube channel.

Game 1 - November 25, 2024 - Monday: Ding Liren (black pieces) 1-0 Gukesh

Game 2 - November 26, 2024 - TODAY

Game 3 - November 27, 2024 - Wednesday 

Rest Day - November 28, 2024 - Thursday 

Game 4 - November 29, 2024 - Friday 

Game 5 - November 30, 2024 - Saturday 

Game 6 - December 1, 2024 - Sunday 

Rest Day - December 2, 2024 - Monday 

Game 7 - December 3, 2024 - Tuesday 

Game 8 - December 4, 2024 - Wednesday 

Game 9 - December 5, 2024 - Thursday 

Rest Day - December 6, 2024 - Friday 

Game 10 - December 7, 2024 - Saturday 

Game 11 - December 8, 2024 - Sunday 

Game 12 - December 9, 2024 - Monday 

Rest Day - December 10, 2024 - Tuesday 

Game 13 - December 11, 2024 - Wednesday 

Game 14 - December 12, 2024 - Thursday 

Tie-breaks (If needed) - December 13, 2024 - Wednesday

It's a long-standing tradition in the history of World Chess Championship battles for grandmasters to keep their seconds, or assistants, behind the shadows during major tournaments. When Viswanathan Anand battled Veselin Topalov for the world title in 2010, he relied on the expertise of chess legends Garry Kasparov and Vladimir Kramnik, who were themselves world champions, to defeat the Bulgarian. But their involvement was kept confidential until after the victory. Similarly, in 2013, when Anand faced Magnus Carlsen, who the Norwegian had secretly enlisted the help of Ukrainian grandmaster Pavel Eljanov to counter Anand with the Caro-Kann defense.

Ding Liren had broken with that norm at last year’s World Chess Championship in Astana. He got on board Hungarian grandmaster Richard Rapport. The duo would walk back from games together, in essence parading their partnership. It was a marked departure from the secretive approach typically employed by top players. This unprecedented move raised eyebrows in the chess world, as it was previously unknown that the two were close enough to work together on such a high-stakes event.

Rapport's influence was evident in Ding's unconventional opening choices, particularly the 4.h3 move in Game 2 of the 2023 World Championship against Ian Nepomniachetchi, which surprised many observers, including Anand and Anish Giri, who jokingly suggested it might have been an accidental move. This unconventional approach, inspired by Rapport's experimental ideas, added a layer of unpredictability to the match. In Game 1 of the World Chess Championship as well, Rapport’s influence has been visible, as evidenced by the use of the French Defence which Rapport is an expert in.

Ding Liren has employed the services of Richard Rapport as his second for another World Chess Championship. The Hungarian grandmasters' influence in Ding Liren's reportoire has been clear already, it was Rapport's presence that got Ding Liren to open with the French Defence with black pieces in Game 1.

Check out our explainer on the French Defence. 

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of the World Chess Championship's Game 2 where Ding Liren, after winning Game 1, plays with white pieces. Gukesh, the 18-year-old challenger from Chennai, will be back on the board trying to level the best-of-14 series. 

It will be a tough ask for the teenager playing in his first World Chess Championship. But in the past, Gukesh has shown a remarkable ability to deliver when faced with a setback on the board. 

Follow all our updates from Game 2 in real-time on this blog.