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Gukesh Leads World Championship After Ding's Blunder Ends Game 11 Thriller
Ding Liren resigns to Gukesh after blundering in game 11. Photo: Eng Chin An/FIDE.

Gukesh Leads World Championship After Ding's Blunder Ends Game 11 Thriller

Colin_McGourty
Colin_McGourty
Staff
| 143 | Chess Event Coverage

Indian 18-year-old GM Gukesh Dommaraju has taken a 6-5 lead with just three games to go after a blunder by Chinese World Champion Ding Liren (32) suddenly ended the thrilling game 11 of the 2024 FIDE World Championship. Gukesh's hyperaggressive opening looked to backfire despite causing Ding to spend over an hour on his first five moves. Gukesh spent an hour on a move himself, but just when Ding had seized the initiative, he slipped and allowed Gukesh to regain it. In mutual time pressure it was the world champion who ultimately collapsed. 

Game 12, the last before the final rest day, starts Monday, December 9, at 4:00 a.m. ET / 10:00 CET /  2:30 p.m. IST / 5:00 p.m. local time in Singapore.

Match Score

Name Rating 01 02 03 04 05 06 07 08 09 10 11 12 13 14 Score
  Ding Liren 2728 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 . . . 5
  Gukesh Dommaraju 2783 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 . . . 6
How to watch the 2024 FIDE World Championship
You can watch the 2024 FIDE World Championship live on Chess.com/TV and on the Chess24 Twitch and YouTube channels, while GM Hikaru Nakamura is streaming on Kick. IM Andras Toth is analyzing the games in a Chessable course. 
Watch the live broadcast, hosted by GM Anish Giri, GM Peter Leko, and John Sargent.
Cometh the hour, cometh the man. Photo: Eng Chin An/FIDE.

Grandmaster Game Analysis, By GM Rafael Leitao

GM Rafael Leitao has analyzed game 11 of the match below.

The first Asian grandmaster, Eugenio Torre, and former Women's World Champion Hou Yifan made the ceremonial moves. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Ding Burns Hour On 5 Moves As Team Gukesh Prep Is Huge Success

"After yesterday's calmness, I believe we're going to see a big storm!" said GM Peter Leko during the pregame show, and he was absolutely right. His co-commentator GM Anish Giri pointed out that this was the game to push in terms of match strategy, since if Team Gukesh felt they had to win in classical chess—and they may well since Ding is a more proven player in rapid chess—then this was the chance. In his final game with the white pieces next week, it might be too dangerous to take any risks.

Gukesh went for 1.Nf3, and after 1...d5 he varied with the sharp 2.c4!?.

Ding could have gone for a quiet response such as 2...e6, with Giri later suggesting Ding would have been ready to pay a huge amount of money to turn back the clock.

If you tell Ding you can pay a fine of $10,000 but you are allowed to take back your second move, and you can play 2...e6, he would pay $10,000. I think he might go as high as $80,000 or maybe even over $100k because this game might decide a world championship match!

Ding Liren, not for the first time in the match, was on his own very early on. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

Ding later said he thought he'd been ready for what happened in the game, but after 2...d4 3.b4 c5 4.e3, the Reversed Blumenfeld Gambit, Ding sank into a 38-minute think. He was aware that he'd previously played 4...Nf6 against GM Adhiban Baskaran in an online rapid game, but would later say, "I forgot what to do with the other moves."

The problem was that Gukesh was also aware of that game, and it was only on the next move that the near novelty 5.a3 was the real point of his play. 

Ding instantly understood that he'd just wasted almost 40 minutes: "He played a3, which also came as a surprise, so I had to think once again, so these 40 minutes just went nowhere to calculate some nonsense variations."

These 40 minutes just went nowhere to calculate some nonsense variations.

—Ding Liren

Gukesh, meanwhile, who had been shown the move by his team the night before, gave them "full credit" for it. He explained:

It’s obviously very double-edged, but we just thought that we had good odds of out-preparing him, and my team did some amazing work in this line, and I looked at the line. I felt it was very interesting, and the risk-reward ratio was quite nice because I would be surprising him, for sure. 

The risk-reward ratio was quite nice because I would be surprising him, for sure. 

—Gukesh Dommaraju

Forced to think again, Ding spent another 20 minutes, dropping below an hour on his clock before move five, while his fans and grandmaster observers looked on in growing horror. 

When he did move, 5...Bg4!? wasn't the best move in the position, and the instant reply by Gukesh seemed almost to spell doom for Ding, since he'd have to play an extremely complex position vastly behind on the clock. 

There was one glimmer of light, however. Giri had earlier pointed out during the long think that no move by Ding was likely to be entirely bad in a position where White was violating some positional principles—and that things could turn around fast.

Nothing could prepare us, however, for the twist that was about to follow.

Gukesh Mixes Things Up, Takes Longest Think Of Match

Both Gukesh and Ding would be equally bamboozled in the opening! Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

If the game had ended differently, the position on which we might say the whole world championship match had turned is the one after 8...Qc7. 

Strictly the only move to give White a comfortable edge is 9.c5!, but instead Gukesh played 9.d3?, having thought for just five minutes in a position where he had over an hour's lead on the clock. Why so fast? He revealed in the press conference that he'd thought he had the position on the board in the morning and that d3 was the move, but his guess was that he'd actually been looking at the position after 8...Nc6.

Ding blitzed out 9...a5, and after 10.b5!? Nbd7! Gukesh was surprised to see the knight was getting to c5 and sank into an extraordinarily long think that would ultimately be timed at one hour and 17 seconds. The situation on the board had utterly turned around.

Leko drew arrows that all came back to the gaping hole on c5—which meant Black should suddenly be doing more than fine.

Gukesh described what happened as "just horrible," and would ultimately say he'd come up with "a stupid plan," but the fundamental issue seems to be that he felt he hadn't gone wrong but was simply struggling to remember the details. "I was still under the assumption that I should have something," he said, and the hour passed trying to find something that didn't exist: a variation where White was better.

Gukesh had to dig himself out of a hole, both on the board and mentally. Photo: Maria Emelianova/Chess.com.

It already felt like a post-mortem was taking place, with Giri pointing out that an opponent playing very slowly can be as difficult to deal with as an opponent playing fast. He gave an example from a game where he lost his sense of danger when GM Alexander Grischuk took an enormous think against him:  "Playing fast is very unsettling, everybody knows that, but that playing slow can be unsettling, that's something I learned against Grischuk, and that's something Gukesh is learning today!"

That playing slow can be unsettling... that's something Gukesh is learning today!

—Anish Giri

There would be more twists ahead, however.

Ding Underestimates His Position, Gukesh Regroups

Gukesh was able to readjust. Photo: Eng Chin An/FIDE.

In hindsight, it was already possible to note that Ding hadn't fully understood the position either. He called Gukesh's ultimate 11.g3, "a bad move, allowing me to capture the d3-pawn," but it was actually the best move in a difficult position. Gukesh's "stupid plan," with the queen coming to f4, was also the best he had, although he commented, "It was such a normal position and then suddenly my queen is stuck on f4 and I don’t know what to do, so at that moment I was just kicking myself!"

The game would turn again after 15.Rd1?!, which was actually the first time in the game that deep computer analysis gave Black a big advantage. 

The absolutely natural 15...e6!, preparing Bd6 and potentially 0-0, was very strong, but Ding found a move that perhaps only a player of his strength and calculating ability would make, 15...g6?!

The plan to follow up with h5 and Bh6, trapping the queen, was brilliant, but this was the moment Ding felt he lost the game, saying in the post-game press conference: "I played a horrible move, 15...g6. I missed 16.a4. I should have played e6, and maybe the position is not so bad. After g6 my bishop is clearly out of play and I don’t think I have any chance after that."

I don't think I have any chance after that.

—Ding Liren on his 15...g6

The computer evaluation after the 15...g6 move is a notorious 0.00 (equal), while after 15...e6 Black would have been much better. Gukesh was surprised at his opponent's evaluation, but both players agreed that 16.a4! was a game-changer.

Gukesh noted afterward, "I was just trying to make one move at a time and not lose on the spot, and this a4, I think, was a very, very important resource because at first I just had no idea what to do in this position!" The crowd sensed the importance of the moment.

Suddenly the pressure was on both players to navigate a complex position with drastically little time to think.

Gukesh Piles On Pressure In Mutual Time Trouble

Ding Liren suddenly found himself in a fight for survival. Photo: Eng Chin An/FIDE.

The game was still balanced on a knife-edge, but this was when Gukesh's mental training, under the guidance of Paddy Upton, began to come to the fore. Gukesh explained why he took a short break away from the board:

When I was drifting with all these long thinks, I just got really mad at myself. I was also getting lower than him on the clock, but I thought I should take a break now and just refresh, because I wasn’t thinking clearly at that moment. I just went to my lounge, I just spent a couple of minutes calming myself down, and I just told myself, now I’ve already spoiled the advantage. Now let me just make one move at a time and not make any more mistakes. Somehow things went very well!

I just spent a couple of minutes calming myself down, and I just told myself, now I’ve already spoiled the advantage. Now let me just make one move at a time and not make any more mistakes.

—Gukesh Dommaraju

Total determination from Gukesh. Photo: Eng Chin An/FIDE.

If Ding has a weakness—and one all players have to some extent—it's how tough he seems to find it to adapt to blows at the board. 16.a4! was one such moment, but then later Ding noted he thought 20...Nc6! had solved his problems (objectively it does!), but then he was hit by 21.Na3!, commenting, "Here I thought I’m fine after Nc6, but I missed Na3, a very strong idea to give up the b6-pawn, doubling on the b-file and playing on the dark squares."

It was all but risk-free for White, and while neither player came close to perfection in the time scramble that followed, 25.Na1!? was again a clever move, causing Ding to use up six precious minutes of his remaining 14.

"At least in time trouble, it will be very hard for him to handle," reasoned Gukesh, with Ding seeing the option of 25...Nb4!?, offering a transition into a slightly worse endgame, but rejecting it because of 26.Nb3 b6 27.c5, a line where Black is objectively doing OK. 

In fact, it was only after 25...Rb8 26.Nb3 that 26...e6? was the first serious mistake by Ding in the game, but it passed in a blur as we almost immediately reached the crucial position of the whole game, and perhaps the match.

Ding Blunders

28.Rdb1?! is objectively not the best move by Gukesh (28.Nxb7! should win), but it ended the game.  

Ding had almost eight minutes, and if he'd played 28...Nb4! Black is still very much in the game. Instead 28...Qc8??, played in 27 seconds, was a huge blunder, allowing Gukesh to sacrifice his queen with 29.Qxc6!. He'd spotted it in advance and seen that after captures on c6, the b8-rook will fall. The game was instantly over! 

Gukesh has taken a one-point lead with just three classical games to go, suddenly making him a big favorite in a match that had seemed at times to be slipping away from him as the draws mounted. The importance of the moment wasn't lost on the Indian crowd. 

Gukesh was, of course, happy himself at the turn of events, but he admitted his main emotion was relief. He explained:

I think this game was just a roller coaster! It could have easily gone the other way. So I think in this game maybe the key was that I could accept that I had screwed up after the opening and I could refocus—a thing that I’m quite happy about! 

I think this game was just a roller coaster!

—Gukesh Dommaraju

Gukesh stopped for selfies with fans in Singapore after the game. Photo: Eng Chin An/FIDE.

There's no time to fully adjust to the new landscape, since on Monday the players clash again. Ding has been here before, in his 2023 match against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi, and will try to make another comeback! 

There's a good chance we'll now get to see one of the "must-win" ideas GM Richard Rapport and the rest of Ding's team have prepared, but a loss would also put Gukesh on the brink of claiming the title. Don't miss it!     

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The 2024 FIDE World Championship in Singapore decides the next world champion. 18-year-old Indian Challenger Gukesh Dommaraju takes on Chinese Defending Champion Ding Liren (32) in a 14-game match, with the first to 7.5 points winning. The players have two hours for 40 moves, then 30 minutes to the end of the game, with 30 seconds added each move from move 41 onwards. The prize fund is $2,500,000, with $200,000 for a win and the remaining money split equally. If tied 7-7, a playoff will take place, starting with four games of 15+10 rapid chess.

Previous world championship coverage:

Colin_McGourty
Colin McGourty

Colin McGourty led news at Chess24 from its launch until it merged with Chess.com a decade later. An amateur player, he got into chess writing when he set up the website Chess in Translation after previously studying Slavic languages and literature in St. Andrews, Odesa, Oxford, and Krakow.

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