D Gukesh has finally beaten Ding Liren in a classical game. He finally has his first win in this world championship. Now, he truly has the bit between his teeth. Just as the 2024 FIDE World Championship heads into its first rest day, Gukesh’s win is significant, both in its manner and its timing.
Gukesh first took the upper hand over Ding with his opening preparation, which was significant in putting Ding under time pressure – eventually leading to the Chinese player losing on time – the first time in over 30 years that a player has lost on time at the World Championship. Gukesh said that the first 13 moves were all played from his preparation, taking a similar line to a match between Vladimir Kramnik and Arjun Erigaisi in 2023. It took him less than 4 minutes to play those 13 moves, and that gained him an advantage of more than an hour on the clock over his opponent.
He got out of the opening with a slight advantage, but the engines had the two players nearly level, until Ding played an inaccurate move with his rook, which was followed by a series of precise moves from Gukesh, that put him in a position where he was the only one pressing to win the game.
Gukesh’s body language here was completely different to the first match, where he had gotten out of the opening in a comfortable position. He barely got out of his chair, alternating between long hard looks at the board and eyes-shut meditation. It looked as if he knew that this was the time to cash in.
“There were a lot of lines to calculate. Even though it was my prep, I couldn’t recall many things. So I had many things to figure out on the board, so, just sat [at the table],” Gukesh said later.
The precision with which he played was a statement that he has finally found his feet, having not really had too many opportunities to create momentum in the opening two games. There might have been question marks raised over whether the occasion was overwhelming him if he had gone three games without creating an opportunity to win, particularly having played two with white, but those questions have now been put to rest.
“It feels great. The last two days, I was happy with my play, today was even better. I feel good at the board. Today I just managed to outplay my opponent,” he said.
Gukesh even managed a riposte to Magnus Carlsen, who had said after game 1 that Gukesh had done nothing right on the board. The youngster said he was nervous on the opening day, just like Carlsen was a decade ago, “not himself”, on his world championship debut.
���� Gukesh D regarding his Game 1 loss: “I think it’s also understandable since it was my first game at the World Championship. I was a bit nervous. It’s a new setting for me.
For example, even Magnus. In his first World Championship, he wasn’t at his best at the start. I think it… pic.twitter.com/8HMhbWYtZS– International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) November 27, 2024
“It was a bad game but I was generally feeling good… I always knew that once I settle in I will get back my rhythm,” he said.
It’s also a perfect time for Gukesh to deliver his first blow, leaving Ding the rest day to stew over a difficult loss.
“The result of the game will maybe influence my emotions during the rest day,” Ding said. He certainly did look at the end of the game as if he was dejected by the outcome. He simply signed the scoresheets, picked up his blazer and trudged out of the playing hall. Even in the press conference, it looked like he would need more time to recover from what had just happened.
Gukesh has now delivered a punch just when he needed to. There has been a lot of pre-match talk that has centred around Ding’s ability to react to when he loses his first game of the match. Now he has, and he can’t get back on the board straightaway to erase the pain of this defeat. When they come back on Friday, Ding has a chance to seize the initiative with white pieces, but this is now a different Gukesh that he will face.
Gukesh has settled. Gukesh is feeling good about his chess. He has lifted a number of weights off his shoulders, and can now just continue to focus on playing good chess, just as he did in game 3.