World Championship, Game 7
Ding survives by the skin of his teeth.
Up until this point in the match it was the champion, Ding Liren, who was getting superior positions but generally failing to convert them. He was better in games 1, 3, 5, and 6; and while he won game 1 he went -1 in the other three games. He had expressed dismay at this in an earlier press conference, but now the shoe is on the other foot - and then some. Gukesh Dommaraju wasn’t merely better in game 7; he was winning - at least twice.
He won the opening battle, for starters. It’s not that 7.Re1 is likely to set the chess world on fire, but it was a provocation that Ding reacted to, taking the gambit pawn. That was fine, but he should have tried to retain it. Instead, after 9…c5 rather than the rightly greedy 9…b5, White enjoyed an edge that turned into a winning advantage when Ding went pawn-hunting a second time, this time sending his queen on a near-suicide mission in the heart of White’s position. Gukesh was soon winning, but bit by bit let the advantage slip. Had Ding played a good move on move 40 - the last move of the time control - he would have drawn comfortably.
Instead, 40…Ke5?/?? allowed White to swap his doomed d-pawn for Black’s relatively healthy h-pawn and regain a winning advantage. But once again, Ding toughened up while Gukesh got somewhat slack, especially with the careless 46.Bd1?/??, when 46…f4 pretty well solved all of Black’s problems. The game went to move 72, until there was no mating material left, but in reality the battle was over after 46…f4.
It will be interesting to see how the players react to the psychological ups and downs of this game; in particular, how Gukesh reacts to missing a big chance to take his first lead in the match. Game 8 will start soon; in the meantime, here’s game 7, with my comments.