India’s Gukesh Dommaraju held reigning champion Ding Liren of China to a draw in Game 4 of their 14-game China World Chess Championship Final Match at the Resorts World Sentosa here on Friday, overcoming another surprise opening to fight for equality in a game in which both players spent time trying to keep the game going.
It was a game that saw both players performing at a 100% accuracy rate and with both of them playing safe, they ended up splitting the point after 42 hard-fought moves with a clear three-fold repetition in a rook ending.
Both players made correct moves in the middle game to reach what looked like a rook-pawn ending but the position remained simple and drawish throughout and they decided to sign the peace treaty in the game that started with two World Champions and trailblazers in their countries, Xie Jun from China and Viswanathan Anand of India making the ceremonial first moves and cheered on their compatriots.
Both Ding and Gukesh now have two points from four games and will be back on the board on Saturday for the fifth game with the Indian Grandmaster playing with white pieces.
Ding, who had won with white pieces in the first game, came up with another surprise opening but Gukesh fought well, and a draw looked the only outcome when the position got simplified after Ding tried to attack his rival’s dark-coloured bishop with a trade. But Gukesh came up with the right moves and kept things in control.
Ding started with the Reti Opening, differing from the King Pawn Opening he chose in the first game, and it soon developed into the Zukertort Opening, which many experts believe is a very flexible opening.
But things did not get complicated much as Gukesh, who brilliantly won the third game with white pieces just before the first rest day of the event on Thursday, came up with the right responses after the initial surprise element had worn off. Ding also decided to play safe and did not take any risks, though both of them spent an inordinately longer time thinking on some moves, and the game developed into a draw as the Chinese Grandmaster could not breach his rival’s defence.
Ding Liren was quite content with his play. “Yesterday I had a rest day to recover from the tough loss and today I was in a very good move. I tried to surprise my opponent and it worked well, but the advantage was very small. He was able to neutralize my initiative and the game was balanced”.
Ding Liren was quite content with his play. “Yesterday I had a rest day to recover from the tough loss and today I was in a very good move. I tried to surprise my opponent and it worked well, but the advantage was very small. He was able to neutralize my initiative and the game was balanced”.
For the challenger, a draw with black pieces is a very good result: “It wasn’t a completely new line for me, although it was a bit of a surprise. I was playing over the board from early on. I think I reacted well enough, neutralizing his edge. It was a solid game and even towards the end, I had some chances to press better. With Black, it’s all you can expect in a match,” he said in the post-game press conference.