Ding Liren claws back into World Chess Championship after defeat to keep battle with Gukesh alive | Chess News

For the fourth time in two years, Ding Liren pulled a rabbit out of the hat just when he needed to: winning a game at the world championship when he was trailing after a defeat.The Chinese grandmaster did this three times to Ian Nepomniachtchi to force last year’s world championship into a tiebreak, where he eventually prevailed. Ding has now done it to the 18-year-old challenger from India, D Gukesh, right after losing to him in Game 11 on Sunday.
With two games remaining in the 2024 world chess championship, the prospect of tie-breaks appears increasingly likely with both players locked on six points each after 12 games with two wins each.
How does Ding keep doing this time and again?
“Just chance,” the world champion told grandmaster Maurice Ashley at the post-match press conference when asked how he finds the strength to bounce back immediately.
“Yesterday was a difficult game to deal with since I was much better at one point and just spent too little time on critical moments and spoiled a very good position. I continued my normal routine. Had dinner, slept earlier and got refreshed for today’s game.”
Ding’s predecessor Magnus Carlsen had predicted that the most likely scenario after Game 11 was that Ding Liren would “crumble”. Even before the world championship started, many elite grandmasters had said that they feared it would turn out to be a “massacre”.
But Ding showed he is made of sterner stuff, even if he has not played his best chess in Singapore.
“This is Ding’s best game in the past two years. This is his real strength when he is in good form. What a statement to make after a horrible blunder yesterday!” said Susan Polgar on X. “For those who said that Gukesh would destroy, demolish, humiliate, and massacre Ding, they were all wrong! As I said all along, this will be a close match, and it will be.”
It was a game in which Gukesh didn’t really make any massive makes. It was death tiny inaccuracies and marginal gains made on every move that eventually added up to a massive advantage on the board.
The evaluation bar could only offer up the following four moves from Gukesh as inaccuracies: 20…Bf6?!, 22…Bg5?!, 26…Qd7?! And 36… Rc4?!.
But so clinical was Ding on Monday that the middle game, Gukesh’s pieces were running out of good squares to be on while Ding had control of the central files.
For the Indian teenager, Susan Polgar tweeted: “This will be Gukesh’s biggest test in his young career! How to come back from such a loss? Luckily, he has a day off to recuperate.”
For Gukesh, there is still some solace.
“Obviously, this game is a bit of a disappointment. Thankfully, it is a rest day tomorrow. Nice to know the score is still tied and that this game is not a huge blow to my chances. Will just try to play good games in the remaining two games,” said the usually unflappable Gukesh, who for once needed time to compose himself after resigning in Game 12.
Over the past three weeks, it has been a cagey battle in Singapore. Ding won the first game of the world championship. Gukesh won Game 3. After that, seven straight games ended in draws.
But the world championship sprung to life with Gukesh’s win in Game 11. Ding, who has been largely content to play out draws — even offering draws in Game 6 and game 8 when in a superior position on the board — has only now started to feel the urgency to win. And win he did, not due to chance, as he tried to brush it off.

Dutch grandmaster Anish Giri, while speaking on Chess24 about the way the Ding vs Gukesh battle has shaped up over 12 games, said: “This reminds me of the movie Tenet — I completely lost the plot, but I’m just enjoying the ride!”