World Chess Championship: After criticism, Gukesh and Ding Liren play out undramatic draw

“Very precise game from both of us. Maybe, I had some edge at some point,” said Gukesh at the post-game press conference. “When both players play correctly, sometimes it ends in a draw.”

This was in complete contrast to recent games which have seen blunders and inaccuracies from both players and momentum swinging wildly. Former world champions like Vladimir Kramnik and Magnus Carlsen have criticised the level of play at this world championship on their YouTube recap videos.

The current world champion was asked if he was aware of the criticism and if it affected him.

“Yeah, I saw people say that I always underestimate my position and Gukesh always overestimates it. I also saw someone saying that I was playing out draws even when I was winning. It doesn’t affect me. They’re just telling the truth,” said Ding with a sheepish smile.

The duo has taken a contrasting approach to social media during the match.

“There’s no need to block social media during a match. I sometimes use social media as a way to release stress after a game,” said Ding.

His opponent, meanwhile, spoke unlike any 18-year-old of his generation. “During tournaments, I generally don’t use social media. If it is important, my team will tell me. I myself don’t go on the internet and look at things. In general, it’s not that tough because I am not on social media too much anyway,” said Gukesh.

INTERACTIVE: Game 9 between Gukesh and Ding Liren

You can check out the move by move action from Game 9 between Gukesh and Ding Liren and also play along in the interactive below. Scroll down to read our updates in real time from Game 9.

FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky, who is himself a grandmaster, also weighed in on the criticism the two players have received for their moves.

“I find this whole narrative of ‘they make too many mistakes’ to be odd. You want a perfect game or you want a fight? I find the match in Singapore exceptional — it is precisely a clash of personalities, styles, characters we were looking for,” Sutovsky said on X while pointing out that even world championship battles of the past – like the ones between Kasparov-Karpov and Fischer-Spassky – would have several flaws if examined by an engine.

“World Championship matches are remembered due to the tension, unexpected twists, dramatic resolutions, new opening ideas, exceptional moves… Ding-Gukesh is a fascinating one.”

Just as Sutovsky was making an impassioned plea for carefree chess, both protagonists went about playing an accurate brand of chess.

The evaluation of the game by chess.com showed that while Gukesh had maintained 99.2 percent accuracy in his moves in Game 9, the corresponding figure for Ding was 99.3.

After the game, chess legend Susan Polgar took a dig at detractors of the Ding-Gukesh battle by posting: “How dare these two agree to a draw with king vs king? I am sure someone will complain about not fighting hard enough.”

Early surprise from Gukesh

Gukesh once again caught his opponent by surprise in the opening after opting for a Catalan.

This has been the theme of the last few games at the 2024 World Chess Championship where the Indian teenager pulls out a rabbit out of the hat in the opening with a novelty or a complication, which forces the world champion to burn up time on the clock to decide a way to defuse the situation. But by the middle game, both players fall level on the clock.

This is what happened in Game 9 as well, with Ding having just 30 minutes left on the clock to make 21 moves at one stage.

The Chinese was left far behind on the clock from the start of the game itself after he had spent 30 more minutes on his clock compared to his young opponent by the 12th move. He was 50 minutes behind on the clock after just 15 moves.

Ding had lost Game 3 already on time, and has found himself in desperate time scrambles on a few other occasions. But on Thursday, he eventually made it past the time control with ease.

Thursday’s draw was the sixth in a row at this World Chess Championship. Both players head into the third rest day on 4.5 points each. There are five more games left before tiebreaks, which will be played in the rapid format. The draw also means that Gukesh now has two games with white remaining compared to Ding’s three.

Evaluating the nine games so far, Gukesh said: “We had a few missed chances from me, and a few missed chances from him… We’ve played entertaining chess. Five more exciting games to go.”