How Gukesh became World Chess Champion: Recap of all 14 games
India’s D Gukesh beat China’s Ding Liren in Singapore on Thursday to become the youngest World Chess Championship in history.
It was a tantalising 14-day affair between the reigning champion and Gukesh, before the latter came out on top.
Here’s how each day of the 14 day World Championship 2024 panned out:
Game 1: After a difficult start playing with black, Ding Liren staged a turnaround. Gukesh resigned on the 42nd move which meant the defending champion got a 1-0 lead over the Indian challenger. It was the first win for Ding in 304 days.
Game 2: The second round ended in a draw with a three-fold repetition. Ding continued to lead the World Championship 1.5-0.5 after the second round.
Game 3: Playing with Whites, Gukesh avenged his first-round loss to Ding in the Queen’s Gambit Declined Game.
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Game 4: A big development on the board as Gukesh happily lets the Black Queen get traded for its White counterpart.
36. Qxd5 Rxd5
And we saw a repetition of moves from the two players which sealed the fate of this contest. 42 moves each before the two share half-a-point each.
Game 5: Ding chops off Gukesh’s pawn at f3 before retreating to the original c6 square which makes the position equal — fair and square. This game is seemingly heading towards a draw. The fifth round ends in a draw as well. Both players agree to draw by mutual agreement after the 40th move.
Game 6: After denying the first three-fold repetition, Gukesh agrees to end the game to a draw via the same three-fold repetition.
Game 7: Gukesh would have rued his chances but the reining champion did not let the momentum go away from him. A fighting draw for the Chinese made sure the World Championship will still be tied at 3.5-3.5 after the seventh round.
Game 8: A brave Gukesh denied the three-fold repetition for the second time in this World Championship. But after four and a half hours of grueling chess, finally Ding was able to force a draw against Gukesh in 51 moves.
Game 9: An anti-climatic end to Game 9 as it finished in a draw after queen, rook, dark-squared bishop for Black and knight for White were kept off the board.
Game 10: A seventh successive draw followed. Ding Liren got a risk-free chance to push with White in Game 10, but instead it was an uneventful draw with three-fold repetition draw in 36 moves.
Game 11: With 3 games to go, Gukesh took the lead at 6-5.0! Ding makes a huge blunder on move 28 — queen to c8 and Gukesh plays the best move, chopping his knight on c6. Ding resigned immediately after Gukesh’s next move.
Game 12: Just when he was down and out, Ding brought out his best of the World Championship. The Chinese GM’s accuracy was very high on the day as Gukesh was outplayed right from the opening and was forced to resign on the 39th move. A disappointing end to this round as the World Championship is tied again, this time at 6.0-6.0.
Game 13: After 53 moves, the queens were traded off the board and moments later, a three-fold repetition draw was accepted. Both players went into the last round with equal points — 6.5-6.5 after the 13th round.
Game 14: With the exchange of the queen, the game seemed to be heading towards a draw and the World Championship was meant to be decided through tiebreaks. However, Gukesh had different plans. He kept pushing in an equal position with one extra pawn with Black. In an ideal world, defending this position for White would not have been a tough job but the nerves of the final game of the World Championship got the better of Ding, who misplaced his rook on f2 in the 55th move, allowing Gukesh to force a bishop exchange and win a king pawn ending. Ding resigns on the spot making Gukesh the youngest World Chess Champion in the history of the sport