Moscow: When India’s young chess player D Gukesh will take on China’s Ding Liren in the fourth game of the World Chess Championship on Friday after a day’s rest, his morale will be boosted by his victory in the third game of this 14-game match. Eighteen-year-old Gukesh performed brilliantly in the third round and registered his first win of this championship.
There are still 11 matches left in the championship being played under classic time control. Earlier, Gukesh had to face defeat in the opening match while the second match was a draw. After three games, both the players now have equal 1.5 points each. Gukesh, who faced defeat in the first game, has clearly raised the level of his game and has shown better preparation. Liren had to pay the price for a mistake in calculating the moves in the third game. He took too much time during this time, which made things complicated for him.
By the thirteenth move, Gukesh had a lead of one hour and he had spent only four minutes. Liren, on the other hand, had taken one hour and six minutes. There is no addition of time for 40 moves in the first 120 minutes of the game. The match getting complicated in the middle affected Liren and Gukesh increased the pressure on him with his precise moves.
Gukesh adopted the same strategy that former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia had adopted against Arjun Erigesi of India in a rapid match. Erigesi narrowly escaped defeat and drew the match while Gukesh won by taking advantage of Liren’s simple mistakes.
Liren had only two minutes left for the last nine moves and only ten seconds for the last six moves. In the end, he had no time left. After registering a win while playing with white pieces, Gukesh said in the press conference, “It feels very good. I was happy with my game for the last two days. Today I played even better. It looked good on the board and I was able to beat my opponent.”
Earlier in the opening game, Gukesh unnecessarily complicated the game in the middle, which allowed the defending champion from China to start with a win. Gukesh made a strong comeback in the second game and held Liren to a draw. The match lasted only 23 moves.
18-year-old Gukesh is the youngest contender for the world title and is trying to become the first Indian to win the title after Viswanathan Anand. Anand has won the title five times in his illustrious career. It is likely that with the score tied, Liren will adopt a more cautious approach instead of being aggressive and will learn from the mistakes made in the third game.
Boozing with confidence, Gukesh will focus on maintaining his mental edge and not giving the Chinese player a chance to make a comeback. The Chennai player looks better with white pieces and if he manages to continue doing so, Liren will come under pressure. Liren won the last World Championship title after trailing three times against Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi. He then took the lead in the last stages of the match and the tiebreaker on the last day decided the winner of the title.
Liren’s ability to make a comeback cannot be underestimated. The 32-year-old player said clearly after Wednesday’s defeat, “… the result of this match will probably affect my emotions on the day of rest.” Now it remains to be seen how he makes a comeback. After Gukesh’s victory, the match has progressed interestingly and chess lovers would not have expected more excitement than this in the first three games.
