‘Cost of one game higher now than it was before’: Gukesh after draw in Game 10

“They are all for kids,” shot back Ding Liren.

At the World Championship, Ding Liren, incumbent crown-wearer and D Gukesh, audacious teenage challenger, are involved in a much more dangerous activity. The jenga tower of the World Chess Championship is getting increasingly unstable each time one more game ends in a draw and both players find themselves level on points. And with it, the players are getting more cautious, gingerly playing to avoid defeat.

Unsurprisingly then, for the seventh straight game at the 2024 World Chess Championship, Gukesh and Ding Liren agreed to a draw.

After the 36-move draw on Saturday, the prospect of tie-breaks appears increasingly likely. 10 games into this duel, both players are deadlocked at five points each. If there is no player who holds an advantage after four more games, the game will head into the tie-break, which is played in the rapid format. This will clearly suit Ding Liren, who had won the crown of the world champion in the first place by defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi last year in the rapid tie-break.

Gukesh started the World Chess Championship as the World No 5 in classical with a rating of 2783. The classical format is his forte. Meanwhile, the world champion from China was World No 23 with a rating of 2728 before game 1. But in the rapid format, Gukesh has a rating of 2654 and a world ranking of 45 while Ding, at 2776, is ranked no 2 in the world.

“It seems that Ding has found his groove and made his intention known. If Gukesh wants to win this match, he has to take chances to break the deadlock. Ding is happy to chill his way into the rapid and blitz playoffs,” remarked chess legend Susan Polgar on X.

In Game 10, there was not really too much to separate the two with Ding Liren breaking with his custom of playing a different system in his opening when playing with white pieces. He went back to the London System for the second time, after having tried it in Game 6. As Ding had admitted after Game 9, now all the opening phase tricks have largely been used by both players in trying to catch their opponent off guard.

In the history of the World Chess Championship, the London System had made an appearance just thrice. And it’s always been the man from China attempting it, twice against Gukesh and once against Nepo last year.

The draw did not seem to bother both players too much.

“I’m up for a game with both colours. But a solid draw like this with black pieces is a good result. The result is okay, just means we have four more interesting games to go,” a nonchalant Gukesh said at the post-game press conference.

But the draw does mean that the match is now reduced to a best-of-four games match where the cost of even a misjudged pawn push could be the difference between the world seeing the coronation of the 18th world champion, or Ding Liren continuing his reign for a few more years.

“Obviously the cost of one game now is higher than it was before. But 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,” shrugged Gukesh.

“There’s not too much room for mistakes. Now we have to be careful with every move. A loss will be a very bad situation,” admitted Ding.

Ding Liren is yet to win a match at the ongoing World Championship after winning Game 1. Gukesh was the player who last tasted victory at the World Chess Championship after levelling the match scores in Game 3.

Asked if they would now just wait for the other player to make mistakes, Gukesh replied: “Mistakes are happening in every game. In general it’s hard in chess not to make mistakes. We’re just trying to outwit each other at this point.”