World Chess Championship 2024 Game 4 ends in draw after initial tension on board

The official FIDE release states that both players played with a 100% accuracy rate in game 4.

"A game that sees both players performing at a 100% accuracy rate can only finish by splitting the point," says a release from FIDE.

Ding Liren is asked about his opponent, Gukesh's strengths and weaknesses. The world champion says: "Maybe it's too early to answer this question!" 

On Twitter, Dutch GM Anish Giri replies to this by saying: "It is too early now to talk about Gukesh's weaknesses, but soon it might be too late."

Grandmaster Xie Jun, four-time Women’s World Champion, made the first ceremonial move for Ding Liren in Game 4 today.

But who is Xie Jun?

Xie Jun is the first Asian woman to become a chess grandmaster. She is a FIDE Vice-President and the current president of the Chinese Chess Association. In 2019, she was inducted into the World Chess Hall of Fame.

GM Xie Jun, four-time Women’s World Champion, made the first ceremonial move for ??Ding Liren at Game 4 of the FIDE World Championship. ??

GM Xie Jun is the first Asian woman to become a chess grandmaster. She is a FIDE Vice-President and the current president of the Chinese… pic.twitter.com/dKcLbCfZ05

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) November 29, 2024

Nov 25: Ding Liren wins Game 1
Nov 26: Game 2 drawn
Nov 27: Gukesh wins Game 3
Nov 28: Rest Day
Nov 29: Game 4 drawn

Nov 30: Game 5

Dec 1: Game 6

Dec 2: Rest Day

Dec 3: Game 7

Dec 4: Game 8

Dec 5: Game 9

Dec 6: Rest Day

Dec 7: Game 10

Dec 8: Game 11

Dec 9: Game 12

Dec 10: Rest Day

Dec 11: Game 13

Dec 12: Game 14

Dec 13: Tie-Breaks (if required)

Chess legend Susan Polgar says that Ding Liren's move to bring the dark-squared bishop to the a3 square early on was a tactic tried by former world champion Tigran Petrosian in a game against another world champion Mikhail Tal.

In 1962, Petrosian successfully tried the Ba3 idea against Tal. Maybe Ding and his team were inspired by this similar idea?#DingGukesh pic.twitter.com/HIoNjywH2U

— Susan Polgar (@SusanPolgar) November 29, 2024

“Ding's game strategy is simple. He wants to take Gukesh off his excellent home preparation. This forces Gukesh to spend a lot of time on the board to come up with the right ideas/moves/plans. Ding believes that Gukesh is more vulnerable when he is out of preparation and low on time,” pointed out chess legend Susan Polgar on X. 

Gukesh is asked if he was surprised in the opening, as Ding treid to do.

“It was not a completely new line. I had seen it somewhere, but it was a bit of a surprise when I saw it on the board. At some point, I felt that he had some slight edge, but I felt I had neutralised it,” said Gukesh in the post-match press conference. 

At the post-game press conference, world champions Ding Liren is asked about his strategy coming into game 4 today. 

"I had a rest day to recover from the tough defeat in game 3. So I came here in a good mood. I tried to surprise my opponent in the opening. It worked well. Not so bad. But advantage was very small. He neutralised my initiative," says Ding.

"Score is 2-2 after 4 games. Ding got almost nothing in both white games. It seems that Ding got what he wanted, a slow pace strategical game with no risks. Gukesh also got what he wanted, eliminate a black game," said Susan Polgar on Twitter after the game ended in a 42-move draw.

Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri is fairly impressed with Gukesh's 30th move to push his pawn ahead to f5. It leaves the black king unprotected.

"30...f5 is nicely sick, but still full confidence in my precap," said Anish Giri on X.

Chess legend Susan Polgar tweets: 'Game 4 is heading toward an uneventful draw. Gukesh successfully navigated around an opening surprise. Ding needs to do more with the white pieces in future games.' 

Ding Liren has a 2.3 percent chance of winning the game now while his 18-year-old opponent has a 5.1 percent chance. 92.6 percent chance of this game ending a draw, according to the Leela Chess Zero evaluation of this game that the official broadcast is showing. 

Gukesh thinking of his 29th move. here are all the moves after Ding's 29th move with white: 

1 Nf3 d5
2 e3 Nf6
3 b3 Bf5
4 Be2 h6
5 Ba3 Nbd7
6 O-O e6
7 Bxf8 Nxf8
8 c4 N8d7
9 Nc3 O-O
10 cxd5 exd5
11 b4 c6 
12 Nd4 Bh7
13 Qb3 Ne5
14 a4 Rc8
15 a5 b6
16 Nf3 Nxf3+
17 Bxf3 d4
18 Ne2 dxe3
19 dxe3 Be4
20 Rfd1 Qe7
21 Bxe4 Nxe4
22 axb6 axb6
23 Nc3 Rfd8
24 Nxe4 Qxe4
25 h3 c5
26 Rxd8+ Rxd8
27 bxc5 bxc5
28 Rc1 Qe5
29 Qc2

Gukesh has a pawn on the c file which might be asking a few questions off of the world champion. Otherwise, there are no real complications on the board. Both players have four pawns, a rook and the queen and king on the board. 

Ding has been looking at the clock and stealing glances at Gukesh a fair few times now. He's clearly hoping this ends in a draw. 

There's now a 90 percent chance that this will end as a draw. And right after that stat is flashed on the board, a pawn and a rook from both side are exchanged.

Both players are off the board now. They're camped into their player lounges. 

Ding Liren speeding up the game. The remaining knights are also off. And we have just a rook each and five pawns on the board for both players. 

here's what the board looks like after 24 moves each: 

1 Nf3 d5
2 e3 Nf6
3 b3 Bf5
4 Be2 h6
5 Ba3 Nbd7
6 O-O e6
7 Bxf8 Nxf8
8 c4 N8d7
9 Nc3 O-O
10 cxd5 exd5
11 b4 c6 
12 Nd4 Bh7
13 Qb3 Ne5
14 a4 Rc8
15 a5 b6
16 Nf3 Nxf3+
17 Bxf3 d4
18 Ne2 dxe3
19 dxe3 Be4
20 Rfd1 Qe7
21 Bxe4 Nxe4
22 axb6 axb6

The herd on the board is thinning fast. Plenty of pieces getting chopped off the board now. The last seven mvoes have seen four pieces get traded off! 

Both players have no more bishops left on the board and are down to six pawns each. One knights on the board for both players. 

On the FIDE commentary, grandmaster David Howell and International Master Jovanka Houska are getting wary that this game could be heading to a draw. 

Howell jokes about "chess karma" where if you accept an easy and early draw with white pieces --- like Ding Liren did on Game 2 --- you will get punished in the next game with black pieces (Ding lost Game 3).

Chess legend Susan Polgar speaks on what's happened so far in the game: "Ding's game strategy is simple. He wants to take Gukesh off his excellent home preparation. This forces Gukesh to spend a lot of time on the board to come up with the right ideas/moves/plans. Ding believes that Gukesh is more vulnerable when he is out of preparation and low on time." 

AS Ding Liren thinks about his 16th move, former world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk thinks that "things are starting to get interesting on the board."

"The position can fire up very fast, or at worse there can be a lot of exchanges and it will be a draw. I'm not sure what will be a good result or how it's going to go. It seems like the next two or three moves will be crucial in deciding the outcome of this game," says Alexandra Kosteniuk on the FIDE YouTube broadcast.

HERE'S WHAT THE BOARD LOOKS LIKE AFTER 15 MOVES EACH:

Here are the first 15 moves from both players. Stockfish suggests these three candidate moves from Ding Liren: Bab | axb6 | Nf3

1 Nf3 d5
2 e3 Nf6
3 b3 Bf5
4 Be2 h6
5 Ba3 Nbd7
6 O-O e6
7 Bxf8 Nxf8
8 c4 N8d7
9 Nc3 O-O
10 cxd5 exd5
11 b4 c6 
12 Nd4 Bh7
13 Qb3 Ne5
14 a4 Rc8
15 a5 b6

The 18-year-old spent nearly 30 minutes on his 13th move. He eventually hops his knight to e5. 

But surprisingly, both players are almost level on the clock! 

After 13 moves, Ding has six more minutes on the clock:

1 Nf3 d5
2 e3 Nf6
3 b3 Bf5
4 Be2 h6
5 Ba3 Nbd7
6 O-O e6
7 Bxf8 Nxf8
8 c4 N8d7
9 Nc3 O-O
10 cxd5 exd5
11 b4 c6 
12 Nd4 Bh7
13 Qb3 Ne5

Alexandra Kosteniuk, former women's world champion, on what she expects from this game 4 between Gukesh and Ding Liren: "No fireworks on the board yet, I'm hoping for more action."

The 40-year-old Alexandra Kosteniuk calls Gukesh a "representative of the new genration". 

"They don't have any dogmas. That you should play like this. As we grew up hearing nonsense from our coaches," says the Russia-born Swiss grandmaster. 

"This new generation likes to calculate. Sometimes when you look at the position you cannot understand why he's taking so much time to think. But I'm sure there's an iceberg of lines. And we see only the tip of it (when Gukesh plays the move). I would love to have his strategy." 

She calls this Ding vs Gukesh clash as a "clash of generations".

Former women's world champion Alexandra Kosteniuk is speaking in the FIDE broadcast about her 'dissatisfcation' with the way the 2024 World Chess Championship has shaped up after three games.

'Lots of games, like the third and first one, was just starting up. But the tension was released too fast,. Maybe because of a mistake or because of an inaccuracy. I did not see real fight that we were looking for. Not rooting for anyone in this match. I'm rooting for chess instead. I like to see tension till the very last pawn. I want to see complicated middle games and interesting end games. We haven't seen any complicated end game yet. I'm sure we will see many of those, players are clearly warming up, this is just the beginning. Players have time to warm up at these long events,' says Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Just 11 moves in, and Dign Liren has been spending a lot of time on the clock. He's already used up 16 more minutes compared for his opponent. 

1 Nf3 d5
2 e3 Nf6
3 b3 Bf5
4 Be2 h6
5 Ba3 Nbd7
6 O-O e6
7 Bxf8 Nxf8
8 c4 N8d7
9 Nc3 O-O

Gukesh does castle on the ninth move, but now Ding Liren is down on the clock, which is odd because he's the one that's chosen the opening which has set the pace for the way the game will progress. 

And he's been the one thinking longer than his teenage opponent. 

A look at the "fishbowl" where Gukesh is playing Ding Liren. It's a soundproof room where players cannot hear the fans outside. And there is mirrored glass inside, so players cannot see outside. Here's what it looks from outside for the fans present at the playing arena looking in. 

Ding Liren is the one who is spending a lot of time on his 9th move after Gukesh gets his knight out of the wat for a king-side castle. 

As Ding contemplates, Gukesh goes into a long period of medidation. 

So Ding Liren does attack Gukesh's dark-squared bishop and captures it. Gukesh captures it with his knight. But he's not used up two moves of knight to keep his castling options available. and now he will need to use up a third move to get the knight out of the way so that he can castle on the king-side.

Here are the first five moves from both players:

1 Nf3 d5
2 e3 Nf6
3 b3 Bf5
4 Be2 h6
5 Ba3 Nbd7

Ding has his bishop parked on the a3 square with his third move. If he had planted that dark-squared bishop on the b2 square, it would have controlled the longest diagonal on the board. But instead, the bishop on a3, pins Gukesh's pawn on e7 in front of his king. IF he moves it, Ding can capture Gukesh's dark-squared bishop. That would need Gukesh capturing the bishop with his king or the rook at the king-side. But it would mean that Gukesh cannot castle on that side. 

An interesting choice from Ding at the start as he seeks to surprise his 18-year-old opponent who is playing in his first World Chess Championship. Gukesh already thinking hard about his third move. We have a Zukertort Opening on the board, named after Johannes Zukertort.

Very interesting that Ding Liren leaves the board after just two moves in the book. He famously sat almost 245 minutes in the same spot in game 1 against Gukesh. 

So two legends to make the first moves. China's legendary Xie Jun makes the first ceremonial move for Ding while Vishy Anand makes the move for Gukesh. They chose d4 and d5.

Ding rejects that move and opens with a knight to f3 and then plays an e3 on his second move. 

We're minutes away. And as per convention, there's no eye contact AT ALL! Gukesh goes into his pre-match mode of meditation. And Ding stares at his pieces. 

The Indian teenager is also in the playing arena. He's exits the lift flanked by his father Dr Rajini Kanth and his second Polish GM, Grzegorz Gajewski.

Once again, it's Ding Liren who enters the playing hall ahead of his teenage rival. This time, he's flanked by his second, Hungarian grandmaster Richard Rapport.

Here's what Gukesh had said after his win in Game 3 at the press conference: "It’s always nice to win a game, also for the first time against such a strong opponent. I think it means more that I got a win in the World Championship, and a very important win. I am happy with many things about this."

Gukesh's Game 3 win over world champion Ding Liren was Gukesh's first win in classical chess over Ding Liren. Gukesh had only lost with black pieces against Ding. So this was a great result for Gukesh for more ways than one. 

The world championship currently stands evenly poised by both [players having 1.5 points each. 

They will return to the board on Friday well-rested after their first rest day of the event. 

Ding Liren, the reigning World Chess Champion, suffered a surprising defeat to Gukesh in the third game of their World Championship match. This loss was due to a time forfeit, an uncommon occurrence in classical chess. Ding, known for his strong performance in rapid and blitz formats, ran out of time just a few moves before the time control.

A crucial moment in the game came when Ding made a risky tactical attempt, sacrificing a bishop to capture a pawn. However, Gukesh skillfully defended his position, trapping the bishop and gaining a significant advantage. The position mirrored a game between Vladimir Kramnik and Arjun Erigaisi from the 2023 FIDE World Rapid Team Championship, where Kramnik made a similar mistake. Gukesh's familiarity with this game allowed him to exploit Ding's error and secure a decisive victory.

READ MORE on how Ding Liren lost Game 3

18-year-old Gukesh pocketed a cool Rs 1.68 crore ($200,000) for his game 3 win over Ding Liren at the world chess championship. This is as per the regulations in place for the World Chess Championship 2024, as decided by the global governing body of chess, FIDE.

FIDE regulations for World Chess Championship 2024 match, state: “The prize fund shall be divided as follows: Each player shall receive $200,000 for each game won (including games won by forfeit. The remaining balance of the prize fund (which is $25,00,000) shall be split equally between the players.”

This means that Ding will also receive $200,000 for his victory in Game 1 over Gukesh.

Preparing for a World Chess Championship is one thing, but experiencing the intense pressure of the actual event is another. Even top players like Magnus Carlsen, Garry Kasparov, and Ding Liren have faced challenges in their first World Championship matches. The pressure can be overwhelming, leading to unexpected mistakes and emotional turmoil.

Henrik Carlsen, Magnus's father and manager, shared insights into the immense pressure that comes with a World Championship match. He recalled how Magnus, despite his immense talent and preparation, struggled in his first game and even trembled during the second. This experience highlights the unpredictability of such high-stakes events, even for the world's best players.

Read more on how the 1st world chess championship battle tested the best, from Carlsen, Vishy Anand, Kasparov and Ding Liren

Renowned mind coach Paddy Upton, in an interview with The Indian Express, compared Gukesh's humility to that of Rahul Dravid, noting that both players are constantly striving to improve, despite their significant achievements. He also contrasted Gukesh with some younger cricketers who may have overestimated their abilities early in their careers. Upton emphasized Gukesh's quiet confidence and his ability to perform under pressure.

“I’ve worked with very accomplished individuals who certainly don’t overrate themselves. Like Rahul Dravid, he doesn’t believe he’s made it. Doesn’t believe he’s the greatest. Always hungry to learn, walks around with real humility. But I’ve also worked with very young players who’ve come into an Indian national cricket team for the first time as 20-year-olds and they think they’ve made it. Gukesh is someone who is quiet, soft spoken and humble. But he has a deep confidence in his ability naturally — certainly no overconfidence.”

Read Paddy Upton's interview with The Indian Express before the start of the World Chess Championship

Gukesh has maintained a remarkably composed demeanor throughout the World Chess Championship, rarely showing any outward signs of emotion. Even after his historic first win against Ding Liren, he remained calm and collected. In contrast, Ding Liren's facial expressions often reflect his emotions during the game, providing a clear indication of his emotional state.

While some top chess players like Hikaru Nakamura, Ian Nepomniachtchi, and Vidit Gujrathi are known for their expressive personalities, Ding Liren's candid nature sets him apart. He has openly discussed his struggles with mental health, including a period of depression during the previous World Championship. This level of honesty is unusual in the world of professional chess, where players often prefer to maintain a stoic image.

Read more: In contrast to inscrutable Gukesh, Ding Liren allows the world to see how he feels

Renowned mental coach Paddy Upton had predicted that Gukesh would excel in the high-pressure environment of the World Chess Championship, despite his young age and him facing the cauldron of pressure for the first time in his career. Upton, who has helped the Indian cricket team win the 2011 Cricket World Cup and the Indian hockey team win the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics, highlighted Gukesh's ability to rise to the occasion in big matches. Upton went as far as comparing Gukesh to top cricketers like Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni in an interview with The Indian Express.

Read Paddy Upton's interview with The Indian Express before the start of the World Chess Championship

Losing the first game of a World Chess Championship, especially as an 18-year-old debutant, could have easily shaken Gukesh's confidence. His past record against Ding Liren, where he had consistently lost with black pieces and had in fact never won in the classical format, added further pressure on the teenager from Chennai.

However, Gukesh has proven to be a resilient player in the past, shrugging off ego-bruising defeates like at the 2022 Olympiad at home to Nodirbek Abdusattarov. Gukesh bounced back from a similar setback in the Candidates Tournament as well --- winning which earned him a shot at the World Cheampion's crown --- where he narrowly lost a game against Alireza Firouzja despite dominating the early stages. But that was the moment Gukesh felt at ease. He in fact said that he draw confidence from that moment. 

Gukesh's mental fortitude has been praised by experts like mind guru Paddy Upton, who has worked with top athletes across various sports. Upton compared Gukesh's ability to perform under pressure to that of cricket legends like Virat Kohli, Gautam Gambhir, and Mahendra Singh Dhoni.

Read our piece on Gukesh's mental fortitude, and why it separates him from the rest

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Game 4 of the Gukesh vs Ding Liren battle royale where the scores are now level at 1.5 points each after the Indian teenager's win in Game 3.