The Week in Chess

The eleventh game of the FIDE World Chess Championship saw Gukesh strike potentially a fatal blow to Ding's chances in the match. This was completely different to yesterday's game, Gukesh chose the Reti and Ding chose a sharp variation which got him into trouble as he didn't seem to fancy the complications when he got there. Ding thought for about an hour over his fourth and fifth moves and put himself in time trouble right from the start. This was clearly a sign of indecision. Gukesh's 5.a3 was shown to him last night and he actually lost his advantage quite quickly, 9.d3=. Gukesh caught up on the clock with a huge think to find 11.g3 but then after 15.Rd1?! e6 or 15....Qb8 would have left Ding a lot better. After 15...g6 Gukesh took over but it took him a while to realise he was better. By move 25 both players were down to 15 minutes for 15 moves except Ding then used 7 of them. 26...Rd6 might have kept equality, Gukesh then missed a combination with 28...Nxb7! but instead he played quickly and Ding's fairly speedy reply blundered the entire position.

This was not on the face of it a very good game but the level of pressure on both players today was rare and that's why we have World Championships and Candidates. A bunch of rapid games where the individual results and occasional blunder don't really matter very much might be more pleasant for the players but you don't make reputations that way and the games lose their special nature. Ding will find it extremely hard to come back from this but there will still be pressure on Gukesh as he approaches the winning line.

Gukesh 6-5 Ding.

Game 12 Monday 9th December Ding-Gukesh.