When India’s young chess player D Gukesh will challenge China’s Ding Liren for the fourth game on Friday after a day’s rest in the World Chess Championship, his morale got boosted by the victory in the third game of this 14-game match. will be.
18-year-old Gukesh performed brilliantly in the third round and registered his first win of this championship. There are still 11 matches left in the championship being played under classic time control. Earlier, Gukesh had to face defeat in the initial match while the second match was a draw.
After three games, both the players now have equal one and a half points each. Gukesh, who faced defeat in the first game, has clearly raised the level of his game and shown better preparation. Liren had to bear the brunt of a mistake in counting the moves in the third game. He took a lot of time during this period which made things complicated for him.
By the thirteenth move Gukesh had a lead of one hour and had spent only four minutes. Liren had spent an hour and six minutes on the other side. There is no time extension for 40 moves in the first 120 minutes of the game. Liren was affected by the complexity of the match in the middle and Gukesh increased the pressure on him with precise moves.
Gukesh adopted the same strategy as former world champion Vladimir Kramnik of Russia against India’s Arjun Erigesi in a rapid match. Erigesi narrowly escaped defeat by drawing the match while Gukesh took advantage of Liren’s simple mistakes and won. Liren had only two minutes left for the last nine moves and only ten seconds left for the last six moves.
In the end he had no time left. After registering victory playing with white pieces, Gukesh said in the press conference, “It feels very good.” I was happy with my game the last two days. Today I played better. Felt good on the board and I managed to defeat my opponent.
Earlier in the opening match, Gukesh had to face unnecessary complications in the middle of the game, which gave the defending champion of China a chance to make a winning start. Gukesh made a good comeback in the second game and leveled Liren. This match lasted only 23 moves.
18-year-old Gukesh is the youngest contender for the world title and is trying to become the first Indian since Vishwanathan Anand to win the title. Anand has won this title five times in his illustrious career. It is more likely that with the score tied, Liren will adopt a more cautious approach instead of aggressive one and will learn from the mistakes made in the third game.
Full of confidence, Gukesh will focus on maintaining his mental edge and not giving the Chinese player a chance to make a comeback. The Chennai player plays better with the white pieces and if he succeeds in continuing this, Liren will come under pressure.
Liren had last won the World Championship title against Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi after falling three times. They then took the lead in the final stages of the match and the tiebreaker on the final day decided the winner of the title. Given Liren’s ability to make a comeback, he cannot be underestimated.
“…the result of this match will probably affect my feelings on the rest day,” the 32-year-old said candidly after Wednesday’s defeat. It remains to be seen how he bounces back. After Gukesh’s victory, the match has progressed interestingly and chess enthusiasts cannot expect more thrill than this in the first three games.