World Chess Championship: D Gukesh loses to Ding Liren in 12th game, both players at 6 points each
Singapore, Dec 9: Indian challenger D Gukesh lost the 12th game against defending champion Ding Liren of China to allow his opponent bounce back and level the World Chess Championship match here on Monday.
The 18-year-old Gukesh was ahead by one point after he notched his second win of the match on Sunday, which came after seven consecutive draws, but Liren's win on Monday brought the things on an even keel.
The two players are now tied at 6 points each with just two games left in the 14-round classical time control format, still shy of 1.5 points in order to win the title.
The remaining two games will be played on Wednesday and Thursday, after rest day on Tuesday.
Irrespective of what happens in the next game on Wednesday, the match will go the distance (14 games) and more likely there will be tiebreaker -- where games are of shorter duration -- to determine the winner.
The 32-year-old Liren had won the opening game before Gukesh emerged victorious in the third game. The second, and the fourth to 10th games were drawn.
In what was the first victory for Liren with his white pieces, Gukesh’s preparation did not come as good as the other 11 games that he played here.
"In the second half, I had chances in many of the games. Today was obviously a bad game, but I wouldn't draw too much from it. Bad games happen. But if you look at the second half overall, I think we are both playing better than the first half," Gukesh said at post-game press conference.
"6-6 is overall the fair result, but since I was leading after yesterday, it is a bit disappointing to lose this game. At least the score is still tied and two more games are remaining."
Liren said he played the 12th game on Monday was his best in recent times.
"Sometimes I perform very well after a loss. It's a very important 12th game. It's maybe the best game I have played in recent times.
"Today I just tried to play the best moves and at some point, I realized my position was much, much better; there was no way to draw.
"I put pressure on my opponent in the whole game, I did not slip today."
The start was an English opening by the Chinese and much to the surprise of the fans, Gukesh went for a position that led to a Benoni defense with colours reversed.
Gukesh started to miss out creating counter play in the middle game as white played just normal developing moves. By the 15th move, though less on time on the clock, white had a small advantage as a central breakthrough looked inevitable, giving Liren the space advantage.
Gukesh’s 17th move did not help his cause as white was able to get the desired break in the centre. Five moves later, another error by Gukesh gave Liren a huge advantage.
Liren’s central pawn made a foray to the sixth rank in what was a near-decisive blow on the 27th move. Gukesh had to part with a couple of pawns. Adding to Gukesh's woes was an imminent rook invasion.
The game ended through a fine tactic by Liren who sacrificed a rook to force matters. The game ended in 39 moves.
For Gukesh, much would depend on how he does in his last remaining white game after the final rest day on Tuesday.
Liren has proved again that he is a tough nut to crack and his second victory in the match was pretty much one-sided compared to many other games in the match that had chances for both sides.
In the previous world championship match against Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia, Liren had to come back from behind as many as three times before being crowned the world champion.
The Moves:
1.c4 e6 2.g3 d5 3.Bg2 Nf6 4.Nf3 d4 5.0–0 Nc6 6.e3 Be7 7.d3 dxe3 8.Bxe3 e5 9.Nc3 0–0 10.Re1 h6 11.a3 a5 12.h3 Be6 13.Kh2 Rb8 14.Qc2 Re8 15.Nb5 Bf5 16.Rad1 Nd7 17.Qd2 Bg6 18.d4 e4 19.Ng1 Nb6 20.Qc3 Bf6 21.Qc2 a4 22.Ne2 Bg5 23.Nf4 Bxf4 24.Bxf4 Rc8 25.Qc3 Nb8 26.d5 Qd7 27.d6 c5 28.Nc7 Rf8 29.Bxe4 Nc6 30.Bg2 Rcd8 31.Nd5 Nxd5 32.cxd5 Nb8 33.Qxc5 Rc8 34.Qd4 Na6 35.Re7 Qb5 36.d7 Rc4 37.Qe3 Rc2 38.Bd6 f6 39.Rxg7+ Black resigned.
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SRH knocked out of play-off race after washout against DC
Hyderabad, May 5 (PTI): Sunrisers Hyderabad were eliminated from the play-offs race after their Indian Premier League fixture against Delhi Capitals was called off due to heavy rain following the first innings here on Monday.
Pat Cummins-led SRH pace attack ran through the DC batting line-up to limit the visitors to 133/7 before rain dashed the slim hopes of the home team. Both teams shared a point each for the abandoned game.
With 13 points from 11 games, DC remain in contention for a top-four spot.
After reaching the final last year, it was a season to forget for SRH who could not replicate their ballistic run of 2024 with the bat. Having collected only seven points from 11 matches, SRH will now be playing for pride.
Chennai Super Kings and Rajasthan Royals were already eliminated from the competition.
Before rain lashed the Rajiv Gandhi Stadium, the hosts put up a clinical effort with the ball and were on course for only their fourth win of the season until rain arrived, creating large puddles of water on the outfield. The match officials decided to call off the game at 11.10 pm local time.
The shot selection of Delhi Capitals' batters contributed to their downfall after being put in to bat.
They were left reeling at 29 for five in 7.1 overs with captain Cummins causing the maximum damage.
Cummins had Karun Nair caught behind on the very first ball of the match with a good length ball around the off-stump. It was a rather loose shot from the DC batter first up.
Faf du Plessis departed in Cummins' following over, a failed attempt to put the relentless Australian away for a boundary. Not getting any loose ball from Cummins, the South Africa went for a pull on the charge only to be caught by the wicket-keeper.
Cummins' third victim was Abhishek Porel who was caught after mistiming a flick.
Harshal Patel and Jaydev Unadkat then got into the act by dismissing Axar Patel and K L Rahul respectively. The in-form Rahul went for a drive on the up but ended up edging it to Ishan Kishan behind the stumps.
It was one way traffic until Tristian Stubbs (41 not out off 36) and impact player Ashutosh Sharma (41 off 26) combined to take DC to a respectable total. They shared a 66-run stand off 45 balls.
Sharma was able to break the shackles by depositing leg-spinner Zeeshan Ansari for a couple of sixes over long-on in the 15th over.
Stubbs did not look as comfortable as Sharma in the middle but managed to provide much needed support to the latter. The South African could find only four boundaries with the last one coming off the final ball of the innings.
🚨 News 🚨
— IndianPremierLeague (@IPL) May 5, 2025
Match 55 between @SunRisers and @DelhiCapitals has been called off due to wet outfield.
Both teams share a point each.
Scorecard ▶ https://t.co/1MkIwk4VNE
#TATAIPL | #SRHvDC pic.twitter.com/VnVZWjsjGJ
