World champion Ding Liren lost the third game of the World Chess Championship against Gukesh on time, a rare occurrence in classical chess. Ding, who has a history of incredible games in the faster time controls as well, fell three moves short of getting additional time on his clock. Follow our liveblog of Game 4 of the Gukesh vs Ding Liren battle here: World Chess Championship Game 4 The game had unravelled slowly through the middle game in favour of Gukesh ever since Ding made a reckless blood-rush-to-the-head move where he pushed his light-squared bishop to the c2 square to try and gobble up an unprotected pawn of Gukesh on b3. But as soon as he made the move, Ding’s marauder of the light-squared diagonals was trapped. Like a greedy mouse that walks into a trap to nibble at a block of cheese only to find the metal grills snapping shut, the black bishop was stuck on b2. Ding realised that he had been lured into a trap by Gukesh, one that was exactly like a game played by former world champion Vladimir Kramnik against Arjun Erigaisi at the FIDE World Rapid Team Championship 2023 in Dusseldorf. That Kramnik vs Arjun game had ended in a draw after 72 moves. “I recalled till the 13th move that we had the same position. I think Arjun made the same mistake in that game and Kramnik had an advantage but then it ended in a draw. I knew about that game, but I didn’t remember what the mistake was,” Gukesh said at the press conference. Poisoned pawn There is a chess concept that became particularly famous during the 1972 Fischer vs Spassky World Championship match called the poisoned pawn. Spassky had left an unprotected pawn which the American gladly captured. But a combination of intricate moves later, Fischer’s queen was captured. The American had lost that game. And all because he had been greedy enough to capture a seemingly cast-away pawn. On Wednesday, Ding’s bishop was stuck in quicksand on c2 after that reckless lunge ahead towards what was a poisoned pawn. Ding tried his best to send a rescue party to extricate the bishop, it was futile and like a boa constrictor squeezing the air out of its prey, Gukesh kept making things harder and harder one move at a time until finally, Ding was in deep trouble both on the clock and on the board. “I knew my bishop on c2 was a weakness so I tried to come up with some idea to save it,” a hapless Ding later said at the press conference. It was a cunning ploy. The idea was this: as soon as the bishop takes the pawn, a white knight jumps back to d2, forcing the bishop to run for its life back to c2 because every other light-square was protected by a Gukesh piece. As soon as the bishop moved back on c2, Gukesh’s rook would slide in on c1 thus trapping the bishop. The bishop could try and run, but it would just be a slow death. Read More: With Game 3 win over Ding Liren, Gukesh shows again that his strongest weapon is his mental toughness That ploy caught Ding off guard and it was around that time that Ding started to think long and hard, which eventually saw him get into a desperate time scramble, falling an hour behind his teenage opponent at one stage. By the time Ding made his 30th move, he had six minutes and 32 seconds left on his clock. He spent almost five minutes thinking at this stage before dropping his king back. Needing to make nine moves in under two minutes, his rook on the h file retreated in a move that cost just one second. On his next turn, his knight jumped Gukesh’s knight but got captured in return. Six seconds spent. So far so good. The bishop lurched forward with just about a minute left. Clock choke But with the clock ticking down to under 20 seconds, Ding’s mind was gasping for breath. He started blinking rapidly. His hand found refuge in his hair. His body rocked forward. His hand hovered over his remaining rook, withdrew, reached out again to get the rook to capture a pawn on move 35. Just nine seconds left now with five moves to go. Gukesh moved in for the kill, speeding up as well not wanting Ding to think on his time. On the brink of defeat, Ding pushed a pawn forward. Five seconds for four moves now. Can a human mind calculate a move, make the move on the board and press the clock in one second? Four times in a row? It turns out Ding cannot as the world champion capsized. The situation was a replica of the first game when Gukesh was playing with white and found himself in a desperate lung-bursting sprint to the finish line where he was trying to beat the clock running out. In that game, Gukesh had made it past the 40-move time control with just one second left on the clock. But his position was significantly weakened by the moves he was rushed into making. He had eventually capitulated a few moves later. On Wednesday, it was Ding’s turn to take a loss. Both players enter the first rest day of the world championship with a level score. “The worst thing you can do in a world chess championship match like this is to lose just before a rest day,” five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand said dryly on the FIDE commentary.
