World Chess Championship: Gukesh vs Ding Liren Game 9 ends in undramatic draw | Chess News

Drama was in short supply on the chess board as game 9 of the world chess championship ended in a 54-move draw between the teenage challenger Gukesh and the reigning world champion Ding Liren.
Unlike the past few games, there were no jaw-dropping tws and turns in Game 9. The evaluation bar could have afforded to take a four-hour nap and woken up to watch the game end in a draw with just two lonely kings left standing on the board.
“Very precise game from both of us. Maybe, I had some edge at some point,” said Gukesh at the post-game press conference.
His rival agreed, calling it a “high-quality game”.
The evaluation of the game Chess dot com showed that while Gukesh had maintained a 99.2 percent accuracy in his moves in Game 9, Ding Liren had maintained a 99.3 percent accuracy.
Gukesh once again caught his rival surprise in the opening after opting for a Catalan.
This has been the theme of the last few games at the 2024 World Chess Championship where the Indian teenager pulls out a rabbit out of the hat in the opening with a novelty or a complication, which forces the world champion to burn up time on the clock to try and decide a way to defuse the situation. But the middle game, both players fall level on the clock.
This was what happened in game 9 as well, with Ding Liren having just 30 minutes left on the clock to make 21 moves at one stage before he would get an additional 30 minutes and a 30-second increment per move.
Ding was left far behind on the clock from the start of the game itself after he spent 30 more minutes on his clock compared to his teenage rival the 12th move. He then fell 50 minutes behind on the clock after just 15 moves.
Ding Liren has lost game 3 already on time at the 2024 World Chess Championship, and has found himself in desperate time scrambles on a few more occasions. But on Thursday, he waltzed past the time control with ease eventually.
At some point during game 9, he even stretched his hands behind his chair, visibly relaxing in his seat.
This is now the sixth time in a row that the world champion and the teenage challenger from India have played out a draw at the World Chess Championship. Both players head into the third rest day level on 4.5 points each after nine games. There are five more games left before tiebreaks, which will be played in the rapid format. The draw also means that Gukesh now has two games with white remaining compared to Ding’s three.
Asked if playing with white pieces was an advantage, Gukesh said: “Not really. There’s not much difference between white and black. Lines which were considered dubious back in the day are being explained better engines and are playable now. He’s had one less game with white pieces so far, and scores are level.”

Evaluating the nine games so far, Gukesh said: “We had a few missed chances from me, and a few missed chances from him… We’ve played entertaining chess. Five more exciting games to go.”