World Championship, Game 14 - Gukesh Wins the Title
Ding blunders in a virtually dead-drawn ending.
Congratulations to the new World Chess Champion, 18-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju of India! He was the deserved winner of the match with the now former champion, Ding Liren of China. Gukesh was better prepared and consistently brought the fight to Ding, and while Ding was incredibly tenacious in defense the irresistible force won this battle with the immovable object.
That’s the narrative, anyway, and there’s a bit of “resulting” at play there. If Ding hadn’t played the horrendous 55.Rf2?? and made a draw, the players would be preparing for tomorrow’s tiebreaks where Ding probably would have been the favorite. Gukesh was a bit lucky, but in defense of the narrative he made his own luck.
About the game: Ding had White and played a quiet opening (I’m not sure what to call it - the Barcza System? It’s eventually a sort of reversed Grünfeld) and as usual it was Gukesh who came up with the first opening surprise with 6…Nge7. Surprised or not, Ding reacted well, and after Gukesh’s poor 13th move White had the chance for a significant (though nowhere near winning) advantage with 14.Qe2 followed by 15.Rd1.
White instead reacted with the routine 14.b3, when the game remained equal to a tiny bit better for White until Ding decided it was time to make a draw with 19.cxb5 axb5 20.Nf4. That vacuumed off a couple of pairs of minor pieces, and then 26.a4 sacrificed a pawn to trade off many more pieces to reach an ending like yesterday’s.
After 32.Bxa8 the players reached a rook and bishop ending with all the pawns on the kingside: three for Gukesh and two for Ding. Ding had no trouble holding the position, and after a pair of pawns were swapped on move 46 the draw was closer than ever. His king was safe, his pawn was fine, and trading the rooks or the bishops - that’s an exclusive or, mind you - would be welcome. The only thing he could not do, other than blundering material or walking into mate, was to trade or allow the trade of both pieces. This is of course what happened.
As mentioned above, Ding played 55.Rf2 - a move that’s desirable or at least acceptable in its own right, but a dreadful blunder here. It took a moment for Gukesh to spot it - he initially considered 55…Rb3 before recognizing what had happened. White’s problem is that after 55…Rxf2 56.Kxf2 Black also trades the bishops with 56…Bd5, resulting in an elementary win for Gukesh. After 57.Bxd5 Kxd5 58.Ke3 Ke5 Ding resigned, and Gukesh became the champion.
It is worth watching the end of the game - Gukesh’s reactions were delightfully human - and the press conference was special as well. The dominant motif was gratitude with Gukesh showing tremendous grace towards the defeated champion and endless appreciation towards his parents and his team. It was beautiful to see, and I hope he becomes a model for other young players coming up in the world.
Scroll through the video below to about 4:28:25, when Gukesh plays 54…Ke5, reaching the diagram above.
The closing ceremony starts tomorrow, an hour later than the games’ start times for anyone who wants to watch it live. In the meantime, here’s the full game, with my comments.