World champion Ding Liren has equalized at the World Chess Championship and has a good chance of defending his title before the decisive phase.
After a concentrated performance with the white pieces this time, the 32-year-old Chinese equalized 6-6 against his 18-year-old challenger Dommaraju Gukesh from India. Whoever gets 7.5 points first is the world champion.
In the game on Sunday, Ding made a major mistake under time pressure that gave Gukesh the lead. The pressure on him was correspondingly high before the 12th game.
“Flawless game under maximum pressure”
Once again, Ding thought much longer about his moves at the beginning, which, as so often happens, gave Gukesh, who appeared well prepared and acted more quickly, a time advantage. Ding then gained a slight positional advantage and put his opponent under increasing pressure.
After a serious mistake by the Indian in the middle game, Ding took his second win in the current duel. “What a comeback, everything is open again”said national chess coach Jan Gustafsson at chess24 and confirmed Ding “a flawless game under maximum pressure”.
The two opponents now go into the final two games with an even starting position. With the score at 7.5:7.5 a tie break would have to decide. The fourth day of rest is scheduled for Tuesday.