World Chess Championship 2024: Gukesh loses Game 1 after escaping severe time trouble

Legendary player Susan Polgar says that despite the defeat, Gukesh should not panic.

"Game over! 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," she posted on her Instagram account. 

Gukesh started the match strongly, clearly up on time after pushing Ding Liren's French Defence tactic aside. He had almost an hour more on the clock at some point as compared to Ding Liren. But then, in the middle game, Ding Liren started to grow comfortable. He was starting ot play his moves fast while Gukesh was forced into long periods of thought. 

Eventually, Gukesh was so low on time that he had to make seven moves in 35 seconds to avoid losing on time. By that phase, Ding Liren was already in an advantageous position in the game. He had two additional pawns on the board. Even though Gukesh avoided losing on time, it was not enough. Ding Liren managed to force a resignation out of the 18-year-old. 

Ding Liren playes with white tomorrow after going up 1-0 in the best-of-14 match. Any player who reaches 7.5 points first will be the world champion.  

Here's how the first game played out:

Ding Liren asked why he had opted to play the French Defence against Gukesh with black pieces, says: "Because it was his first game in the World Championship, I was thinkign he might get nervousat the start, So I tried to play something unusual which I haven't in a long time." 

Ding Liren, who has spent the last few months looking woebegone, looks really cheerful at the press conference. 

"This is totally new experience for me," he says about being ahead in the World Chess Championship. At the last World Championship in 2023, he had to come back thrice from behind against Ian Nepomniachtchi. 

In fact, the only time Ding Liren was ahead was in the tiebreaks which sealed his coronation as the world champion. 

How does this loss change your game plan, Gukesh is asked.  

"Game plan continues to be the same. Play every game with same energy and play the best moves based on the position," Gukesh says with a straight face. 

Ding asked about the French Defence choice in the opening. "Rapport is the French expert. I played French before. But I made the decision to play the French."

"My last classical game was almost two months, at the Olympiad. SO I took a long break and got rest. So I came into the game with a totally new appearance," says Ding Liren.  

Both players are accompanied by Maurice Ashley at the post-match press conference. 

Gukesh asked how he felt while he was walking into the game: "For sure I was nervous. Would be surprising if I said if I wasn't. I calmed down after the game started. I think I surprised him. I was playing good moves at the start."

The inevitable happens. Gukesh survived time trouble. But he came out of it with two pawns down. Soon Ding had taken another pawn. And there was no more fight left in Gukesh. He spent a lot of time coming to terms with the act of resigning.  

But eventually he does throw in the towel. 

Heartbreak for the 18-year-old from India. With his win coming, Ding Liren finally leaves his chair for the first time in the game, leaving his brooding opponent by himself. 

WHAT DRAMA! 

Gukesh escapes time trouble with one second left. He made his 40th move and hit his clock with one second left. And now he gets 30 additional minutes for the rest of the game. He will also start getting 30 additional seconds on their clock starting from move 41.
 

But Ding is totally winning the first game. He's up two pawns. And Gukesh doesn't really have a lot of options here.

Gukesh, who prefers to play in classical as compared to rapid and blitz, has 45 seconds to make his next seven moves. 

He's in severe time trouble here. Ding Liren has almost six minutes on his clock. Ding also has two more pawns on the board compared to the Indian teenager. 

This is nail-biting action here. 

Gukesh now needs to make his next 11 moves in just under 6 minutes. Ding has two more pawns on the board. He's also has a knight on the board while Gukesh has an extra bishop. 

Nail-biting stuff now. We see Gukesh sneaking glances at the clock. He's aware he needs to find only the best moves in this complicated position. 

What a statistic shown on the FIDE live stream. Ding Liren has not left the chair even for a minute since the game started three and a half hours back! 

Gukesh meanwhile has had plenty of time to stretch his legs at the start when Ding was in trouble. The world champion is not in trouble anymore.

It's Gukesh who's under pressure on the clock and on the board. Ding has almost 10 more minutes in the bank. 

How has Ding Liren managed to turn this around? He looked in deep trouble 

At some point Ding Liren was almost 50 minutes down on the clock comapred to Gukesh. But the eval nbar now shows that Ding Liren has an advantage. On the 21st move, Ding boldly offered his queen to Gukesh for an exchange. By this stage Ding already had a slight advantage on the board. But Gukesh, instead of accepting the queen exchange, retreated his queen to e1. But engine does not like that move one bit. 

Ding's pieces are bearing down on Gukesh's king and queen. 

Here's what the position looks like at the moment. The eval bar on the left does not like Gukesh's position one bit!

All of Gukesh's early advantage on the clock that he had built up in the first 14 moves, is starting to evaporate now. Ding Liren is just one minute behind Gukesh on the clock after 20 moves. But this looks like this will head into a time scramble.

Gukesh has 33 minutes for his next 20 moves. Ding Liren has 32 for his 20.

Here are the first 20 moves from both players:

1 e4 e6
2 d4 d5
3 Nc3 Nf6
4 e5 Nfd7
5 f4 c5
6 Nce2 Nc6
7 c3 a5
8 Nf3 a4
9 Be3 Be7
10 g4 Qa5
11 Bg2 a3
12 b3 cxd4
13 b4 Qc7
14 Nexd4 Nb6
15 O-O Nc4
16 Bf2 Bd7
17 Qe2 Nxd4
18 Nxd4 Nb2
19 Qe3 Rc8
20 Rac1 Qc4

Gukesh was almost 50 minutes ahead on the clock at one stage. But now he just has around 20 minutes more than Ding. 

What is remarkable is that the Chiense world champion has not moved out of his chair for the past 2 1/2 hours sicneth game started. FIDE posts a remarkable graphic which shows Gukesh has spent 85 percent of his time in the chair.

A gorgeous shot from above showing both players on the board at last after Gukesh spent the past 30 minutes pacing around. The shot also shows the positions after 14 moves each.

We have the first 13 moves on the board. And Gukesh has significantly more time on the clock than Ding Liren. Gukesh has 35 additional minutes on his clock, while Ding has under an hour for his remaining 27 moves, before we get to the time control where 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.

Here's the story of the game 1 so far between Ding Liren vs Gukesh: 

Ding tried to surprise his opponent with the French Defence early on. But the speed at which Gukesh countered led Ding Liren himself to do a long double take. At the moment, Ding looks slightly more comfortable than he was after move 7 where he started to spend too much time thinking. Ding is a pawn up on the board.

Here are all the 13 moves so far.

1 e4 e6
2 d4 d5
3 Nc3 Nf6
4 e5 Nfd7
5 f4 c5
6 Nce2 Nc6
7 c3 a5
8 Nf3 a4
9 Be3 Be7
10 g4 Qa5
11 Bg2 a3
12 b3 cxd4
13 b4 Qc7

As Ding Liren contemplates his move, Gukesh starts prowling around the playing arena. He's almost bearing down upon his opponent, who seems stuck like a deer in headlights as he stares at the board. 

Gukesh have over 30 minutes more on his clock and we have almost 28 moves before we hit the time control where both players get a gulp of fresh time control air. 

Ding Liren tried the French Defence with the black pieces against Gukesh in the first game of the World Chess Championship. But the ploy does not seem to have worked against the 18-year-old from India. 

What does the French defence attempt to do? 

Check out our explainer on French Defence

After Ding Liren plays his 10th move, Gukesh finally starts to contemplate his next move. So far, he's spent just one and a half minute for his first 10 minutes. Ding Liren spent 49 minutes. 

Here are the first 10 moves of the game so far: 

1 e4 e6
2 d4 d5
3 Nc3 Nf6
4 e5 Nfd7
5 f4 c5
6 Nce2 Nc6
7 c3 a5
8 Nf3 a4
9 Be3 Be7
10 g4 Qa5

Bold move from Gukesh. He moves his pawn on g file to the 4th rank. The idea most likely is to push the pawn on the next aisle to the f5 square. That could open up the centre quickly and the game could unravel.   

Here are the moves on the board so far as Ding Liren thinks his 10th move:

1 e4 e6
2 d4 d5
3 Nc3 Nf6
4 e5 Nfd7
5 f4 c5
6 Nce2 Nc6
7 c3 a5
8 Nf3 a4
9 Be3 Be7
10 g4

This is slightly disconcerting for the world champion. Ding Liren has spent over 25 minutes thinking about his seventh move. He seems to breathing heavity on the board. He finally moves his pawn to a5. Gukesh just plays immaediately. And now Ding is back grappling with his thoughts. 

Here's where things got hairy for Ding Liren: 

Ding Liren is already in a long think after seven moves. He's over 15 minutes behind on the clock compared to his teenage rival. 

He really seems lost here. On the official FIDE commentary, GM David Howell and IM Jovanka Houska, are talking about how worrying the signs are that Ding is already in a long think.

Just look at the images from the live FIDE broadcast. 

French Defence on the board from Ding Liren. The world champion opts for something different as Gukesh moves his king pawn to e4 with his first move.

Is this the Richard Rapport influence in Ding's corner?  The Chinese GM trying his best to surprise his young opponent. But Gukesh plays without too much of a thought and it's now Ding who is thinking long and hard. 

Here are the first few moves:

1 e4 e6
2 d4 d5
3 Nc3 Nf

Demis Hassabis, CEO of DeepMind Technologies, makes the first move for Gukesh. Hassabis was handed a Nobel Prize this year for his work with proteins.  

Gukesh is the first one to walk in to the playing hall. Ding Liren follows. Both players are accompanied by a young chess players each. We're about to start! 

The time control for this world chess championship match is 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. 

Thsi is slightly different than the last world championship match between Ding Liren and ian Nepomniachtchi. On being asked about their views on the time control, Ding Liren said: "Quite a short time control with not so much time for thinking. Last time, second time control we both have more time to think. But this time it's just 30 minutes. It's like Olympiad or other important tournaments. Maybe, it will lead to more interesting games. maybe it's to see our reaction in time trouble." 

Gukesh added: "yes, this time control is short than previous world chess championship. But this is the same that we had in Toronto for the Candidates tournament. Something to keep in mind. It's a very nice time control." 

FIDE chief Arkady Dvorkovich defended the change stating: "The thinking was how we can keep classical traditions while making it more exciting for fans. Some kind of compromise between the two. This has been used at other important events. Good that we're aligning it. Olympiads, World Cup, Candidates... good to have same. For spectators easier to understand when it's the same."

Five-time world champion Vishy Anand has had his fair share of setbacks which came from taking an opponent lightly. 

That's why he's warned his protege Gukesh against taking Ding Liren lightly. He pointed out in an interview with The Indian Express that plenty of top-level grandmasters like Hikaru Nakamura had read into Ding Liren's form coming into the world chess championship. But Anand said that Gukesh needed to treat it as just "noise".  

"There’s no doubt that a year of bad form before an important match does matter. It does show something. You don’t know if this form will continue or this is the moment that Ding Liren is going to break out of it. And you know that Ding Liren is a strong player anyway. Even Ding Liren in bad form. If this constant focus on his previous form lowers your guard even slightly, he’s strong enough to punish you," Anand told The Indian Express. 

Anand went on ot add: "A player should not be thinking about these things. He should go there and play the best move. To be honest, Gukesh didn’t even ask me this question. He himself has come to the right conclusion. ‘I will go there, make the best moves and I’ll see what happens’".

Here's what the player rooms look like for Gukesh and Ding Liren. Pretty sparse. Just two chairs, a table full of refreshments and a television set showing the live game situation. 

Recently in an interview to his own app, take take take, former world champion Magnus Carlsen has spoken about why Gukesh was a "mystery to him".

“It’s weird to have someone who is so unbelievably much better at classical than he is (at faster formats),” Magnus Carlsen said while speaking of Gukesh’s ability to be better in the classical format than in the faster time controls of rapid or blitz. “When I talk to Gukesh after games, he’s considered stuff that I didn’t even think about! Like, ‘how did he have time for this?’ I think he just calculates non stop. In classical chess, it works out quite well. But then you see in some games he just makes very strange positional decisions because he doesn’t have the same filter,” added Magnus Carlsen.

The ratings certainly back Carlsen's claims. The Indian teenager currently has a rating of 2783 in the classical format. That rating dips to 2654 in rapid and 2615 in blitz.

Recently, Gukesh himself spoke about how much he likes classical chess even though players like Magnus Carlsen have weaned off classical chess in recent times.

"Depends on personal opinion. I enjoy classical games more because it gives more time to play higher quality games. Love to see games with higher quality. Rapid and blitz are more exciting for fans. For me, classical is no less exciting than rapid and blitz. If players are looking to play fighting chess, classical chess is super exciting," said Gukesh. at the pre-event press conference.  

Gukesh considers Viswanathan Anand to be his mentor. The five-time world champion has shaped Gukesh's career in more ways than one. Anand was the one who suggested that Gukesh start working with Grzegorz Gajewski. Anand has also helepd Gukesh with plenty of his chess-related requirements with the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy. 

Recently, in an interview with The Indian Express, Anand spoke about Gukesh's maturity! 

"Gukesh has shown at several clutch moments a certain amount of calm. That certainly suggests that he is very, very mature for his age," Vishy Anand told The Indian Express. "Having said that, everybody gets tested multiple times. And this will happen to him as well. There will be moments which are difficult. There’ll be setbacks. That’s quite normal. But during the Candidates, during the Olympiad, there are places where he showed that he’s fully there, he’s really focused and he can really raise his game. And at the Candidates, it was important to be as cool as he did and take some of the decisions he did. So that, again, it’s a promising sign, right? I mean, there are many things you do that other people have done before, but becoming a challenger at the age of 18 really sets you apart because it’s just not been done." 

There has been plenty of chatter about world champion Ding Liren's personal issues and his form on the board. But the one person unaffected by that talk is Gukesh himself.

As mind guru Paddy Upton told The Indian Express in an interview recently: "We have had conversations around the concept of underestimating versus over-respecting your opponent. Gukesh is very well aware of some of the narratives that are out there around Ding’s form. And he’s seen it for himself. But to what degree do we overemphasise or over-respect the opponent versus under-respect them,” says Paddy Upton, who adds that he and Gukesh’s team have been helping the teenager train to face off against an “on-form Ding, who has found his mojo again”.

Gukesh also spoke about this in the press conference befoer the world chess championship. 

"For me it's pretty clear who I am facing. Ding Liren who has been one of the best players in the world for over a decade. My job is pretty clear: go to every game as best version of myself and play best moves in position. Play good chess, play in right spirits, if I am doing right things then no matter what version sits in front of me, his recent form dip or he's at his best doesn't really matter to me. If I am doing the right things, I will have all the chances in the world," said Gukesh. 

Ahead of his first battle with Ding Liren, a remarkably calm Ding Liren attended a pre-event press conference where he spoke of how he was ready for the battle. 

Anand Mahindra quoted his answer on X where Gukesh said “I will …just go to every game as the best version of myself…” to praise the 18-year-old from Chennai. 

"(This is) a philosophy that is inspiring to all of us, not just to a sportsperson. Thank you, Gukesh. An entire  nation is cheering as you take on the World Champion," tweeted Mahindra. 

The World Chess Championship starts in a few hours from now. We built a helpful guide for everyone interested about what is the biggest event in chess. 

What is the prize money the players are playing for? What's the big deal about the World Chess Championship? Why are players concerened about Ding Liren? How do Gukesh and Ding Liren stack up? 

We answer all that --- and more --- in our Full Guide to Gukesh vs Ding Liren

Even while he was playing in the last World Chess Championship, Ding Liren had spoken out about being "depressed and broken". After he got the world champion's crown by prevailing over Ian Nepomniachtchi in a tense tiebreaker, he went on a long break. He didn't play in any competitive events. Earleir this year, when he started playing, multiple players like Hikaru Nakamura raised concerns about Ding Liren’s physical condition.  

“I don’t know what’s going through Ding’s head. It’s a very, very strange situation to be in. You hear all the stories about Ding… But I hadn’t actually played him. Now seeing it in person, it is very clear that he’s not the same person he was back when I played him in 2022. Everything, including the body language, doesn’t feel right. When you’ve played against these guys for so many years there are certain things you get used to. I would be very concerned for him for this upcoming World Championship match against Gukesh. He just doesn’t look right,” Nakamura had said at the Norway Chess tournament in June this year. 

In the lead up to his first World Chess Championship battle, Gukesh enlisted the services of Paddy Upton, a mind whisperer. 

Paddy Upton's resume is well known. He worked with the Indian cricket team before they won the 2011 Cricket World Cup and then he also worked with the Indian hockey team as they claimed the bronze medal at Paris Olympics earlier this year. 

He worked with Gukesh for six months as Gukesh worked his way towards being ready for the big stage, as was revealed first by The Indian Express. 

Upton helped Gukesh with multiple things, including maintaining a balance between "underestimating versus over-respecting your opponent".

Read our full interview with Paddy Upton on his work with Gukesh here>> Paddy Upton interview 

The young Indian challenger, Gukesh, was given a slight advantage as he will be starting the World Chess Championship's game 1 with white pieces.

This means he has a slight advantage. to draw a parallel, it's the equivalent of having to serve in tennis. Gukesh gets to set the pace for the World Chess Championship. 

Ding Liren, at the pre-even press conference told the world that he had spent just three weeks --- that's right, just three weeks preparing for the World Chess Championship. 

"I started to prepare three weeks ago. My coach and seconds analysed some opening lines and we played some games. It's common routine for a World Chess Championship match. I have brought some seconds here to Singapore with me," revealed Ding Liren on Saturday.

He did add that he had "spent more time than last time in preparing" referrign to the clash against Ian Nepomniachtchi in Astana. 

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.

Remember, the tiebreak is where Ding Liren had defeated Ian Nepomniachtchi last year to become the 17th world champion.

The Gukesh versus Ding Liren battle promises to be an incredible moment in the history of chess. Thsi is the first time that both players are from Asia, and fittingly, the match is happening in Asia as well with Singapore playing hosts.

FIDE chief Arkady Dvorkovich billed the battle as a clash between the ‘Indian tiger and the Chinese dragon’.