Singapore. The sixth game of the World Chess Championship played here on Sunday between Indian challenger D Gukesh and current champion Ding Liren of China ended in a draw. After the third consecutive match between the two players ended in a draw, the score is equal to 3-3. They need another 4.5 points to win the championship. Gukesh forced Liren to draw after 46 moves. This was the fourth draw of this match. 32 year old Liren had won the first game while 18 year old Gukesh was successful in winning the third game. Before this, the second, fourth and fifth matches also ended in a draw.
There are still eight games left in the fourteen-stage match and the match between the two players will resume after the second rest day on Monday. Most of the players in the world had underestimated Liren for this match but now it seems that he is gaining confidence with each game. Gukesh said after the match that he did not feel any real danger during the sixth game.
Gukesh said, “I knew the position till Rb8 (Black’s 16th move) and even though I didn’t know (the next one), I thought maybe I played a little worse but it was really difficult to turn it into a win with white pieces.” “It should be because you can’t push the queenside pieces easily and I always have a chance to target their king.” The Indian player said, “I was really not that worried at any time.”
Asked about the reasoning behind his decision to avoid a repeat in the beginning, Gukesh said, “Maybe I played a little poorly, although I wasn’t even sure about it but I felt I should attack back.” He said, “I thought since he was going for repetitions I would just play for a few more moves and see, obviously he was not playing to win.” Liren once again made a great start with the white pieces and put pressure on the Indian player by making 20 moves within the first seven minutes. In the process, however, both players lost important pieces such as the knight (knight) and bishop (bishop).
Both players then had to rely on the pawns along with the queen and rook. Liren explained the reason behind choosing the initial move. He said, “In the last World Championship match (against Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia), I had made the same start and won a good game, I wanted to repeat the same start.” Gukesh spent a little more than 50 minutes in the initial part of the match, giving Liren a 45-minute lead for the first time in the match. Gukesh’s 20th move forced Liren to take a longer time. Liren spent all his extra time during this period. After this both the players started repeating the moves and the match ended in a draw. Liren was in a better position on the computer when the match was drawn.
England’s Grand Master David Howell, who was doing the official commentary during this match, said, “Ding missed a big opportunity. When asked to compare the World Championship with other strong competitions, Gukesh said, “It is probably the toughest competition in chess. Obviously there is a lot at stake but apart from that it is a very interesting and long match against a very strong opponent and at the end of the day we are still playing chess.”
He said, “It has been good so far.” I can still improve my game. There are still many more games to go, seeing as I was trailing after the first game. I am happy to be here, it is still very early.” When asked who among the past world champions were his inspirations, Liren named (Veselin) Topalov and (Magnus) Carlsen while Gukesh named Viswanathan Anand, (Bobby) Fischer and Carlsen.