World Chess Championship 2024 Game 7 highlights: Ding Liren salvages draw after 5-hour, 30-minute struggle

“I thought I was totally inferior during the game. I was getting outplayed. But like many other times, maybe the position was not so bad. And I need to have more confidence in my moves,” admitted Ding at the post-game press conference. “Today’s game was an absolute rollercoaster. I was satisfied that I was not knocked out and will live to fight another day.”

Ding Liren spent so much time on the clock that he played his 40th move — when players get an additional 30 minutes on the clock — with just seven seconds left on his clock. That move was a huge blunder as well (Instead of 40...Ke5, which he played, the world champion should have opted for 40...Nc8-b6 which would have earned him a chance to draw.) 

White: Gukesh D | Black: Ding Liren 

Game Result: 0.5-0.5 | Match score: 3.5-3.5 

Game length: 72 moves

Opening: Neo-Grünfeld Defense | Variation: Classical Variation

Ding Liren narrowly escaped a potential disaster in the fourth game of the World Chess Championship. After a significant blunder on move 40, Gukesh had a clear advantage and seemed poised to seize the opportunity.

Gukesh's strong opening play and efficient time management put him in a comfortable position. However, despite his advantage, Gukesh struggled to convert the position into a decisive win.

In the final moments of the game, Gukesh missed a crucial opportunity to secure a decisive victory. His oversight allowed Ding Liren to survive and salvage a draw, avoiding a potentially devastating loss.

A look at how Ding Liren battled on to salvage draw after 72 moves. 

Ding Liren battles on and earns himself a draw. What a battle. This is the longest game of the 2024 World Chess Championship, one which lasted 5 hours and 20 minutes. 

This is some incredible defence from Ding Liren. He was in dire straights for so much of the game. But he has managed to fight and now the chances of him salvaging a draw are really high. 

Here are the predictions from Leela Zero, an AI-based chess model whose predictions we're seeing on top of the official FIDE broadcast:

Gukesh win: 14 percent 

Draw: 83 percent

Ding Liren win: 3 percent

Gukesh makes his 50th move with less than a minute left on the clock. He is still up a pawn. But he's now only playing on the 30-second increment he gets for making each move. 

Ding Liren playing solely fpor the draw, Gukesh chasing a win. 

Both players have a rook each on the board. Gukesh has three pawns to his opponent's two. Ding has a knight, Gukesh a bishop.

For possibly the first time in this game, Gukesh falls behind on the clock compared to Ding Liren. 

We're heading into a nail-biting end game here with Gukesh now spending over eight minutes on the 48th move. 

This is heating up now. here are all the 45 moves so far on the board: 

1 Nf3 d5
2 g3 g6
3 d4 Bg7
4 c4 c6
5 Bg2 Nf6
6 O-O O-O
7 Re1 dxc4
8 e4 Bg4
9 Nbd2 c5
10 d5 e6
11 h3 Bxf3
12 Bxf3 exd5
13 exd5 Nbd7
14 Nxc4 b5
15 Na3 Qb6
16 Bf4 Rfe8
17 Qd2 Rad8
18 Nc2 Nf8
19 b4 c4
20 Be3 Qa6
21 Bd4 Rxe1+
22 Rxe1 Qxa2
23 Ra1 Qb3
24 Ra3 Qb1+
25 Kg2 Rd7
26 Ra5 Qb3
27 Ra3 Qb1
28 Ra5 Qb3
29 Rxb5 Qd3
30 Qf4 Qxc2
31 Bxf6 Qf5
32 Qxf5 gxf5
33 Bxg7 Kxg7
34 Rc5 Ng6
35 Rxc4 Ne5
36 Rd4 Nc6
37 Rf4 Ne7
38 b5 Kf6
39 Rd4 h6
40 Kf1 Ke5
41 Rh4 Nxd5
42 Rxh6 Nc3
43 Rc6 Ne4
44 Ke1 f6
45 h4 Rd3

So after a long hard think, Ding Liren is now down to just five mintues on the clock. Gukesh, meanwhile, has almost 20 minutes on the clock besides an additional pawn on the board. 

So after 43 moves, Gukesh holds a massive advantage on the board as per the eval bar. The Indian has a +2.9 advantage as per Stockfish. But he makes his 44th move --- 44.Ke1 which was a move Gukesh had to make to avoid getting forked by Ding Liren's knight --- and the advantage falls to +1.5. 

He still does holds an advantage. Meanwhile, the FIDE YouTube stream had shown just five mintiued back which moves led to the biggest spikes on the eval bar. The two two worst moves came from Gukesh! 

Susan Polgar points out that Ding Liren had made an inaccuracy on move 40.

'Ding played inaccurately on his 40th move. Now Gukesh is in control again. It will be difficult to hold again. The h pawn may prove deadly,' she posted. 

We're now past the 4th hour of this match. This makes it the longest battle of the Gukesh vs Ding Liren battle royal for the World Chess Championship. 

Vladimir Kramnik opines that Dign Liren should not be defending his title against Gukesh.

"Exchanging h pawn to d pawn is even better than Nf8. I like Ding and he is a strong player in normal condition but he shouldnt have played this match before fully recovering. It is not him playing, a bleak shadow," Kramnik posted on X.

As Gukesh contemplates his 43rd move, Leela Zero, the AI-based chess model, favours Gukesh's chances of winning this heavily! 

Leela Zero says Gukesh has a 72.4  percent chance of winning this game. 

Ding Liren has a 1.5 percent chance of winning, it adds.  

So Ding makes a couple of moves and the eval bar spikes in favour of the 18-year-old Indian. here's how the players cross the 40-move threshold for getting additional time on their clocks.

The 18-year-old challenger from India goes past the 40-move time control, thus earning himself a bonus of 30 more minutes on the clock. He celebrates it by walking off to his private lounge. 

And now we have Ding Liren contemplating his next move. Ding is down to seven seconds on the clock before he makes his 40th move and gets the bonus of 30 more minutes. 

Ding has six minutes for final three moves before both players get past time control, where they both get 30 mintues each (plus bonus time of 30 seconds per move). 

Ding is still not out of danger, but it seems like the danger is reducing each time he makes a mvoe. 

Right now, Leela Zero, an AI-based chess model whose predictions we're seeing on top of the official FIDE broadcast, gives Gukesh a percent 29.4 chance of plucking out a win here, while Ding has a 2.3 percent chance of winning this game. 

A lot of piece exchange happening on the board now as the queens and a bishop pair getting exchanged.

White is still in a strong position. But Gukesh now needs to play to prevent the game from ending as a draw. 

Gukesh is a pawn up and has 10+ minutes for his final four moves before he gets additional time on the clock. Meanwhile, Ding Liren has  around 7 minutes for his final four moves. 

Former world champion Vladimir Kramnik slammed Ding Liren's play. Ding Liren, the world champion from China, is in deep trouble on the board and on the clock at the moment. 

Kramnik, who had also slammed both players after Game 6 in a YouTube recap video, took to X to slam the Chinese world champion.

"So bad black playing today. Everything wrong from some point, seemingly, and slow in addition. Sorry for Ding, he is a good player normally,but this is just kindergarten. I don't use computer help but after Bc3 for example doesnt seem great for him," posted Kramnik on Twitter

15 mintues on the clock to find 13 moves for the world champion. 

here are all the moves so far: 

1 Nf3 d5
2 g3 g6
3 d4 Bg7
4 c4 c6
5 Bg2 Nf6
6 O-O O-O
7 Re1 dxc4
8 e4 Bg4
9 Nbd2 c5
10 d5 e6
11 h3 Bxf3
12 Bxf3 exd5
13 exd5 Nbd7
14 Nxc4 b5
15 Na3 Qb6
16 Bf4 Rfe8
17 Qd2 Rad8
18 Nc2 Nf8
19 b4 c4
20 Be3 Qa6
21 Bd4 Rxe1+
22 Rxe1 Qxa2
23 Ra1 Qb3
24 Ra3 Qb1+
25 Kg2 Rd7
26 Ra5 Qb3
27 Ra3 Qb1

Gukesh finds the best move with 26.Ra5. He advances the rook to a5, to put pressure on the black pawn on b5. Then Gukesh brings the rook on the a file back chasing Ding Liren's queen as it tries to get out of the corner it has backed itself into.

A great point from Susan Polgar on Twitter. Will world champion Ding Liren be kicking himself for his failure to convert positions in earlier games?

"In the last few games, Ding Liren had chances but did not put in a real effort to push. Today, Gukesh has the upper-hand, both on the board and on the clock. The question is can he convert?" chess legend Susan Polgar posts on X. 

Gukesh now has a chokehold of this game. The eval bar shows just how ahead the Indian grandmaster, who is bidding to become the youngest world champion in history, is. 

Things starting to curdle on the board for the world champion Ding Liren. He has 16 minutes to make 15 moves. He does a full pawn more on the board. But Gukesh, playing with white pieces, has almost 40 minutes for his 20 moves. 

But Leela Zero, an AI-based chess model whose predictions we're seeing on top of the official FIDE broadcast, favours Gukesh's chances highly! It's predicting that Gukesh has a 53.3 percent chance of winning while Ding Liren has a 6.3 percent chance of winning this game. 

20 moves in the book for both players now. And the time situation is instructive about how this game has gone: Gukesh has over 57 minutes. Ding Liren has just under 25 minutes. Things starting to get tense for the world champion. Gukesh, meanwhile, meditating. 

1 Nf3 d5
2 g3 g6
3 d4 Bg7
4 c4 c6
5 Bg2 Nf6
6 O-O O-O
7 Re1 dxc4
8 e4 Bg4
9 Nbd2 c5
10 d5 e6
11 h3 Bxf3
12 Bxf3 exd5
13 exd5 Nbd7
14 Nxc4 b5
15 Na3 Qb6
16 Bf4 Rfe8
17 Qd2 Rad8
18 Nc2 Nf8
19 b4 c4
20 Be3 Qa6

So Gukesh seems to have spent over 25 percent of the past 2 hours 30 minutes with his eyes shut on the board according to the "Focus Flow" stats drawn up by FIDE. 

He's not napping. He's meditating and calculating lines while Ding is mulling his next move.

Is Ding Liren trying to provoke Gukesh into playing more attacking chess?

Chess legend Susan Polgar tweets: "It seems to me that Ding is deliberately provoking Gukesh to play more aggressively and he is happy to comply. I prefer white here in this position."

How well is that white bishop on f3 placed! It's preventing Ding's knight from hopping on e4 and h5, both spots from where it could pile on some pressure on Gukesh.

A look at the longest time each player has spent on a move in Game 7 is very revealing. 

Gukesh, the stats reveal, has spent seven mins, 36 seconds on move 10 (10.d5) and 6:27 minutes on 11.h3. 

His world champion opponent, meanwhile, has gone and spent 28:17 minutes on just the 7th move (7...dxc4) and then spending an additional 13:40 minutes on 16...Rfe8.

... after all that hoopla about Richard Rapport and his shorts, the Hungarian grandmaster has turned up along side his friend Ding Liren wearing pants for a change. 

There was even a Twitter account that sprung up for Rapport's shorts. That account is going to be so disappointed after today. 

After one hour and 35 minutes in this game, Gukesh has spent over 31 minutes with his eyes shut on the chessboard, according to FIDE.

Ding, meanwhile, has spent most of the time thinking about his moves. Ocassionally, he has been stealing glances at his opponent and shaking his head at the position he finds himself in. 

Once again, Ding Liren thinking long and hard after Gukesh's 16th move. Both of his bishops now on the f file.   

Stockfish suggests these three candidate moves (increasing order of preference): 16...Rae8 | 16...Rad8 | 16...Rfe8 

Gukesh is almost 55 minutes ahead on the clock! 

Ding Liren is unhappy with his own position. Over the last couple of moves, we have seen him spend a lot of time contemplating his line of defence and he has been visibly shaking his head a few times. 

How deeply should we be reading into Ding Liren's body language? Is this an act to lull Gukesh into playing more ambitiously? Read our piece on inscrutable Gukesh and emotionally transparent Ding Liren.

As we wait for Ding to make his 12th move after Gukesh plays 12.Bxf3, here's a look at all of the moves so far in the game: 

1 Nf3 d5
2 g3 g6
3 d4 Bg7
4 c4 c6
5 Bg2 Nf6
6 O-O O-O
7 Re1 dxc4
8 e4 Bg4
9 Nbd2 c5
10 d5 e6
11 h3 Bxf3
12 Bxf3

So after another long spell of thought, world champion Ding Liren plays 9...c5. Gukesh is now almost 40 minutes ahead on the clock against Ding Liren. 

Right as Ding Liren makes the move, the evaluation numbers  in favour of Gukesh rises from 21.1 percent to 33.5 percent. Meanwhile, Ding Liren's chances of winning this game drops --- nay, tanks! --- from 33.3 percent to 16.6 percent. The numbers are being calculated by Leela Zero, an AI-based chess model whose predictions we're seeing on top of the official FIDE broadcast.

Here's what the board looks like:

Let's caption this photograph: Meditating tiger, mulling dragon

DING LIREN SPENT 28 MINUTES ON THE CLOCK FOR MOVE 7!! 

And he finally bites the bullet and gobbles up the pawn on c4 with a 7...dxc4. 

Ding is back in thought again as Gukesh reponds in the matter of seconds with a casual push of the pawn. The Indian plays 8.e4.

... FIDE statistics show that Gukesh has so far spent over 43 percent of his time on the board today with his eyes closed. The Indian teenager has his eyes shut right now as Ding thinks long and hard about his next move. 

Ding is contemplating his seventh move. Gukesh has left a sacrificial pawn on the c4 square. Ding wondering if he should get greedy and pocket it with his own pawn. 

A look at how Game 7 has progressed. That 7.Re1 has forced Ding Liren to think a little. 

So both players castle in move no 6, and then Gukesh opts for playing something novel: he shifts his rook to e1. This means in history, only one game --- Dejan Dinev and Gavril Skrcevski in July 2009 --- had seen this sequence of moves. Interestingly, in that game, the player using white had resigned.

Here is the full sequence of moves so far:

1 Nf3 d5
2 g3 g6
3 d4 Bg7
4 c4 c6
5 Bg2 Nf6
6 O-O O-O
7 Re1 

Gukesh starts off with a knight to f3 (1.Nf3) which means that Gukesh, just like Ding Liren, has opted for his third different first move at the world chess championship. 

Gukesh and his team arrive right on the heels of Ding Liren. Gukesh accompanied by hsi trainer Gregorz Gajewski and his father Dr Rajini Kanth. 

The world champion, like we have seen in the past games, is the first to arrive. He has been flanked by his team of seconds Richard Rapport and Ni Hua. Ding's mother also arrives. 

Alright, we will have game 7 coming up in less than half an hour. This is the fourth time Gukesh is playing with white pieces. In the past three games, we have seen all three results possible, with Ding winning the first game, Gukesh winning the second and the third game where Gukesh was using white ending in a draw.

What will happen today? 

In each of the 14 games at the world chess championship, both player will have 120 minutes each for the first 40 moves. On the 41st move, they both get 30 additional minutes for the rest of the game. They also start getting 30 additional seconds on their clock starting from move 41.

So wow does the World Chess Championship work? We break it down. The FIDE World Championship in chess is currently played as a best-of-14-game match. The first player between Gukesh and Ding Liren to reach 7.5 points will be the world champion. In case no player managed to get to 7.5 points and both players are tied on points after 14 games, tiebreaks (matches that are played in faster time control) will be played the next day to decide the winner.

Since 1886, there have been only 17 classical world champions. If he manages to overpower world champion Ding Liren, Gukesh could become the 18th. If the 18-year-old from India does that, he will be the youngest among those 18 players to become a world champion. 

The world championship is the hardest event to compete in, with players spending months preparing for this event. Their seconds (grandmasters who act as assistants) and trainers (coaches) spend a lot of time huddled working out way to surprise the other player with novelties in opening ideas among other things.

Here’s the full list of the world champions in history.

In Game 6, Gukesh opted for a more aggressive approach, declining a draw and continuing the game despite being in a disadvantageous position. This decision surprised many, including chess legend Vladimir Kramnik, who criticized Gukesh's choice. Kramnik argued that Gukesh should have accepted the draw, as Ding Liren had clearly signaled his intention to end the game. The Russian grandmaster emphasized the importance of pragmatic decision-making in a high-stakes match like the World Chess Championship.

“I understand it could have been some kind of an idea to play for a win but it’s a very big misjudgement of the position. Obviously, white (Ding) is much better here. Zero doubt. Modern-day players are so much into calculating variations. Black’s position (Gukesh’s position) is practically on the edge of losing. I don’t understand! This is a world championship match. The decision here should be completely automatic,” the former world champion ranted.

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

After Game 6 ended in a draw, former world champion Magnus Carlsen predicted what would happen in game 7: "Every game that Gukesh plays with white is going to be a fight. There's no doubt about that. I think for now Ding's openings are working quite well. Gukesh is going to try e4 again. "

Carlsen did have a few cautionary words for the Indian teenager. 

"We're almost down to a 60-40 match, in Gukesh's favour. If Gukesh cannot put serious pressure with White on French Defence. But the odds are getting better and better for Ding. If he doesn't win the next game, we’re closing in on a very, very even match," he said.

Game 1 (November 25): Ding Liren beats Gukesh with black pieces

Game 2 (November 26): Game ended in a draw

Game 3 (November 27): Gukesh beats Ding Liren with white pieces

Rest Day (November 28) 

Game 4 (November 29): Game ended in a draw

Game 5 (November 30): Game ended in a draw

Game 6 (December 1): Game ended in a draw

Rest Day (December 2) 

Game 7 (December 3) TODAY

Magnus Carlsen on Gukesh vs Ding Liren game 6 that ended in a draw: “It was a very interesting game. One of those rare positions that is both symmetrical but also extremely unbalanced. Both players justifiably felt they could press for a win.” 

Gukesh made a risky gambit in the game, refusing a draw offer and playing on despite being in a worse position.

Asked how much of Gukesh refusing to take the draw was him playing the position and how much of it was playing the player, Carlsen said: “Very hard to say. Gukesh is a very, very optimistic player in general. It's definitely a bit of both.”

Viswanathan Anand recently participated in a simultaneous exhibition match in Singapore, where he played multiple opponents at once. While he easily won all the games, he admitted that playing simuls has become increasingly challenging over the years. The rising level of skill among young players, aided by powerful chess engines, makes it difficult to maintain a high level of performance in such events.

Anand expressed surprise at the strength and preparation of his young opponents. He noted that even seemingly simple moves could be traps or tactical tricks, forcing him to carefully analyze each position. This increased complexity has made simuls a more demanding task for even the world's top players.

READ MORE 

Chess legend Judit Polgar was surprised by Gukesh's third move (3.exd5) in the fifth game of the World Chess Championship against Ding Liren. She expected a more aggressive approach from Gukesh, given his previous performances and the crucial nature of the game. Judit Polgar expressed her disbelief at the choice of move, which is typically associated with a drawish outcome.

Judit Polgar had said: “This is not how 18-year-olds deal with it. Especially since he levelled the match after that (setback). This is the biggest shock of the match so far. What does Gukesh want to prove with that 3.exd5? Can you imagine that this would become the new fashion if Gukesh the challenger wins the game today after playing this.”

READ MORE 

After the game 6 press conference where he entertained the journalists and fans on the internet with his unwittingly hilarious remarks, Ding Liren was asked if he intentionally tries to be humorous. He humbly replied that his humorous responses were unintentional and that he wasn't aware of the specific answer that led to the laughter.

When asked about the popularity of the memes about him, Ding Liren mentioned that he had heard a comment on the internet about his innocent smile. He seemed amused by the attention and the creative interpretations of his behavior.

“I heard someone say that I smile like a very innocent man,” Ding Liren told Chess24.

Hikaru Nakamura, the world number three chess player, described the sixth game between Gukesh and Ding Liren as "strange" and difficult to understand. He noted that Ding Liren had a positional advantage and a time advantage but seemed to prioritize a draw rather than pushing for a win. Gukesh, on the other hand, appeared more eager to press for a decisive result. Nakamura expressed confusion about the strategic choices made by both players, particularly Ding Liren's decision to settle for a draw.

“For me, this was a game that was hard to understand! ... Very strange game: even though Ding was better for much of the game positionally, it felt like Gukesh was the one trying to win the game! Really hard to understand the psychology behind this game,” said the American grandmaster on his YouTube recap.

Ding Liren expressed his surprise at the "Ding Chillin" meme at the press conference after Game 6, which ended in a draw. The world champion said he was also unaware of what the term "chilling" meant. After being told it meant to relax by GM Maurice Ashley, Ding Liren said he was unaware of the online buzz surrounding his relaxed appearance.

He also hilariously revealed that he had no ice cream while in Singapore. 

READ MORE: At World Chess Championship, Ding not chilling… or having ice cream