WCC: Gukesh holds Liren with black pieces to stay level

PTI Singapore: Indian challenger D Gukesh held defending champion Ding Liren of China to a draw with black pieces in an intense sixth game of the World Chess Championship to remain level on points here Sunday. The third draw in a row left both players on an identical tally of 3 points apiece, still shy of 4.5 more points in order to win the championship. The two players signed peace after 46 moves. It was the fourth draw of the match. It remains to be seen what strategy the players would opt for as the match moves towards the half-way mark.

The 32-year-old Liren had won the opening game while the 18-year-old Gukesh had emerged victorious in the third game. The second, fourth and fifth games had ended in draws. With eight games still remaining in the 14-round match, the battle will resume after the second rest day on Monday, and it does seem like Liren is gaining in confidence with each passing game even though he was written- off by most of the top players in the world. Playing with white pieces, Liren for once solved all his opening problems without much ado as he went for the super-solid London system with his third white in the match and blitzed out the first 20 moves, conceding a mere seven minutes on the clock. In the process though, all the Knights and Bishops had changed hands, leading to a Queen and Rook endgame with equal pawns. Gukesh used up a little over 50 minutes in the first part of the game, giving Liren a 45-minute lead on the clock for the first time in the match. However, on the 20th move, Gukesh chose a dynamic continuation that required deep calculation as well as superior judgement.

Liren thought for a long time, spending all his extra time, and decided to draw the game vide repetition of moves. Gukesh repeated the position twice and then much to the surprise of the global audience, spurned down the unconditional draw offer by not going for the three-fold repetition.