Chennai, Dec 4 (UNI) The eighth game of the 2024 FIDE World Championship match between Indian Challenger D Gukesh and defending champion Ding Liren of China will go down in history as being one of the most exciting of all time before it ended in a draw after 51 moves at Singapore on Wednesday evening.
It was a struggle all the way through, a fight with alternatives for both players, which finally ended in a draw after the Challenger rejected once again a draw by threefold repetition.
Both the teams were tied 4-4 after eight rounds with six matches remaining.
The key position of the game occurred on move 26.
In a very tricky position, Gukesh missed a chance to consolidate his material advantage.
In the press conference, he lamented his decision: “Blocking with 26…Ndc5 (instead of 26…Nac5) looked weird to me. I thought that my move was winning, but I missed his key move 28.Qe1, when 28…Nxd3 loses to 29.Qc3. If I had spotted this idea then I would probably have thought a bit more.”
“It was a very tricky position and he found these ideas very quickly – great defence by my opponent”, he said.
Ding Liren was visibly happy with the result. “He outplayed me once again but then he missed some important details and let me back into the game” the champion recognized after the game.
Nonetheless, Gukesh was delighted with his opening choice: “I want to congratulate my team, not only my head coach Gajewski, but also all the other coaches. They are doing an excellent job and
I thank them for their interesting ideas” he said after the game.
The ninth game of the match will take place on Thursday when Gukesh will play White.
