Chennai, Nov 25 (UNI) Young Indian Challenger D Gukesh went down fighting
to Reigning World Champion Ding Liren of China in the first of the 14-round
2024 FIDE World Championship match in Singapore on Monday evening.
In an unexpected turn of events, Ding Liren defeated Gukesh D with the black
pieces in the first game to take a 1-0 lead and began his title defence in style
after the Indian resigned in the 42nd move.
Despite spending a lot of time at the beginning of the game, the Chinese
Grandmaster found a way to nullify his opponent’s opening initiative and take
advantage of the many pawn weaknesses to break through with a decisive
middlegame counterattack.
Although it seemed that Ding Liren was on the right track, by playing 27…fxe6
instead of the solid 27…Bxe6, he allowed Gukesh a chance to get off the hook.
However, the 18-year-old Indian mistakenly chose 30.Qc2 instead of the principal
30.Bc5, which would have given him enormous tactical compensation and a real
chance to muddy the waters.
In the post game press conference, Ding Liren recognized that he had been a bit
lucky as he had missed two tactics that, fortunately for him, didn’t work for his
opponent.
On his part, Gukesh admitted that he was quite nervous before the game, and
although he was able to calm down, he understood that his opponent had played
very well.
For the first time since the 2010 Anand vs Topalov match, a decisive result has
been certified in the first game.
On that occasion, Indian superstar Vishy Anand also lost to Veselin Topalov, but
went on to claim the title.
The second game of the match will take place on Tuesday, 26th November at
5 PM local time in Singapore.
UNI GV 2048