IMAGE: D Gukesh outplayed Ding Liren to seize lead. Photographs: Kind Courtesy Chin An/FIDE
Grandmaster D Gukesh made a huge strike forward towards becoming the youngest-ever world champion defeating Ding Liren of China in the 11th game of the World Chess Championship in Singapore on Sunday.
With just three games to come, Gukesh took the lead for the first time in the match, with scoreline now reading 6-5 in favour of the 18-year-old Indian.
History is now on Gukesh’s side as no challenger in modern chess has ever scored a win after being tied 5-5 after the 10th game.
For Liren, the only comforting thing could be the fact that he had won the 12th game in the last World Championship match against Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia.
The Indian started off with the Knight move on his first turn and was surprised as Liren went for a reverse Benoni opening.
The move was shocking as it looked like it was an over-the-board decision rather than a planned one.
After only five moves, Gukesh had a lead of over an hour on the clock, which is never too easy for the opponent to recover in crunch games.
However, if everyone thought that the opening had gone seriously wrong for Liren, the Chinese had different ideas as he capitalised on an erroneous plan by Gukesh in the early middle game.
Things turned upside down when Liren went for completing his development and missed out on a simple manoeuvre that would have probably given the defending champion slightly better prospects.
Gukesh himself spent a lot of time in the middle game but the nature of the position remained double-edged.
As the clouds began to clear, Gukesh came up with a spectacular pawn sacrifice on the queen side to give moving space for his rooks. Just as he doubled them on the file to exert pressure, Liren simply crashed and made the blunder in a blink.
The Chinese player was left dejected as he immediately realised the mistake. Gukesh played the winning move in quick time.
In the remaining three games, Liren will have two games as white and this would be the best chance for him if he has to stage a comeback. Gukesh is just three draws away from winning his maiden world championship title.
The moves: D Gukesh – Ding Liren
1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 d4 3.b4 c5 4.e3 Nf6 5.a3 Bg4 6.exd4 cxd4 7.h3 Bxf3 8.Qxf3 Qc7 9.d3 a5 10.b5 Nbd7 11.g3 Nc5 12.Bg2 Nfd7 13.0–0 Ne5 14.Qf4 Rd8 15.Rd1 g6 16.a4 h5 17.b6 Qd6 18.Ba3 Bh6 19.Bxc5 Qxc5 20.Qe4 Nc6 21.Na3 Rd7 22.Nc2 Qxb6 23.Rab1 Qc7 24.Rb5 0–0 25.Na1 Rb8 26.Nb3 e6 27.Nc5 Re7 28.Rdb1 Qc8 29.Qxc6 black resigned.
