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World Chess Championship: How Gukesh courageously spurned chance to draw despite being in worse position vs Ding Liren

World Chess Championship: The two combatants, Ding Liren and Gukesh, are tied at three points apiece going into second rest day of the showdown.

World Champion Ding Liren reacts on the board during Game 6 of the World Chess Championship as Gukesh looks on. (PHOTO: FIDE Flickr via Eng Chin An)

For about 25 minutes in Game 6 on Sunday – which eventually resulted in a draw after 46 moves – Ding Liren spent his time on the board with feet dipped in the warm pool of false hope. The two queens had spent the last few moves waltzing in the middle of the board, their gaze locked at each other.

Ding’s queen shuffled backwards and forwards on d5 and d6 squares, batting its eyelashes at its counterpart. D Gukesh’s queen seemed to be following its lead, moving between e7 and g5 squares. Then, when one more step on the g5 square would have solemnised a draw by threefold repetition – which would have seen both players head into the second rest day of the 2024 World Chess Championship at three points each – the Indian’s queen opted to swipe left.

Follow our liveblog of Game 7 of the World Chess Championship here: World Chess Championship Game 7

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Instead of heading to the e7 square, Gukesh’s queen went to h4, rejecting the advances of Ding’s queen. The 18-year-old from Chennai had chosen to spurn his world champion opponent’s very evident draw offer.

Gukesh was in no mood to down weapons this early. Not right before a rest day, at least. So instead of playing 26…Qe7 for the third time, he instead played 26…Qh4.

Call it the heady optimism of youth, or just the opportunistic psychological prodding of a player who knows what his opponent wants, and is ready to suffer himself for as long as possible just so that the other player is denied what he craves.

Ding threw a few accusatory looks at his opponent at this stage, as if the Indian teen had been leading him on.

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“I thought I might be slightly worse. I wasn’t sure if I was. With the files open in front of his king, I thought I had counterplay. I saw no reason to go for the repetition. Not like I was playing for the win or anything, but I just wanted to play a few more moves and see what happened,” Gukesh said nonchalantly at the post-game press conference.

So when had Gukesh decided that he would not play for the draw? Was it the second time he repeated the moves? Or was it just before it was time to move the queen for the third time?

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

“When I moved it the second time, I had decided that I would not go for the draw,” he said.

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Gukesh was asked if this was a psychological ploy to get under Ding’s skin, to gauge the world champion’s intentions and then send a message that he was feeling up for a fight.

“I just like playing chess, yeah?” smiled Gukesh. “It was more the position than a psychological thing. And I didn’t see too much danger for me.”

INTERACTIVE: Game 6 between Gukesh and Ding Liren

You can check out the move by move action from Game 6 between Gukesh and Ding Liren and also play along in the interactive below. Scroll down to read our updates in real time from Game 6.

Contrasting approaches

While Gukesh was living life on the edge, his mentor Viswanathan Anand was speaking in the FIDE commentary booth about how the 14-game World Chess Championship has played out thus far.

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“We’re seeing contrasting approaches. Ding is very solid with white. It’s not like his ideas are lacking venom. But he’s not taking a lot of risks yet. Gukesh is pushing a bit more. But every once in a while, he stumbles. Yesterday, thanks to a miracle, he got away. Gukesh is putting more pressure, but needs to be more exact,” Anand said about Saturday’s Game 5.

Just as Anand had indicated, Ding was playing risk-free chess in Game 6. Gukesh was taking a devil-may-care approach that possibly would have made his backroom team squirm. After all, it’s the world chess championship. If you’re in a position to take a draw, while you’re in a worse position, you take a draw. But Gukesh was clearly not in the mood for that sort of logic.

“Even in an inferior endgame, Gukesh is trying instead of opting for a draw… But he wins the respect of a lot of fans! ” tweeted chess legend Susan Polgar, who later added: “I would be super nervous playing black here. Not easy at all!”

The game did end in a draw. The queens were traded by the 35th move, something Ding had been attempting to do as early as the 13th move, trying to throw his destroyer-in-chief on squares where both queens could be exchanged. But Gukesh resisted, before finally giving in.

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

Just like in previous games, Ding had come out swinging on Sunday with his opening preparation. He blitzed his first 20 moves, spending barely seven minutes on them. In contrast, his teenage challenger was pushed into long phases of thought after the world champion employed the London System. Gukesh used up almost 53 minutes on his first 20 moves.

At one point, Gukesh was trailing by as much as 45 minutes on the clock but managed to navigate himself out of trouble. But eventually, not just out-maneuvering himself out of trouble, he was also actively courting it in some phases.

The result means that both players head into the second rest day of the world chess championship even on three points each.