New Delhi || 02-12-2024
The sixth game of the Google FIDE World Championship ended in a draw after 46 moves. Both players tried anything and everything on the board for registering a win, but neither managed it.
The Indian challenger, D Gukesh could have forced a draw on move twenty-six, but instead he chose to play on, arguing that although he thought that he might be slightly worse, there was no reason to not continue and take it forward. The champion Ding Liren was content with the result, but acknowledged that he needed to tighten up his game.
The first ever between two Asian grandmasters started the with the Ceremonial move by Scott Beaumont.
The champion Ding Liren went for the London system, which he already used successfully in the sixth game of his 2023 World Championship match against Nepomniachtchi. Although Ding is a consummate 1.d4 player, the London is an unusual choice in his opening repertoire.
But Gukesh came well-prepared to the board and blitzed out his first fifteen moves.
While doing commentry five times World Champion Vishwanathan Anand said, “They have contrasting approaches. Ding is very solid with White, not taking a lot of risk yet. On the other hand, Gukesh is pushing it a bit more but every once in a while, he stumbles, like yesterday. I think they are both trying very hard – maybe Gukesh is putting a little bit more pressure but he needs to me more accurate”.
After the game, Gukesh clarified his thoughts behind his decision: “I thought I might be slightly worse out of the opening but I wasn’t even sure. But with the files open in front of his king I thought I would always have counterplay and I didn’t see a reason to take the draw repetition. Obviously, I wasn’t playing for a win, I just wanted to play a few more moves and see what happened.”
The champion Ding Liren was content with the result, noting that the match is even with several more games still to be played. After the game Liren said, “I feel like I am letting my advantage slip away at a critical moment. I have to improve this in the following games”.
Anand praised the young Indian players Gukesh D, Praggnanandhaa R and Arjun Erigaisi at the end of the day saying “This is a golden generation; they were grandmasters at a very young age. The thing is they keep growing…You can’t keep talking about this as a future thing, it’s happening right now. They’re all top10 players!”
Monday is the second official rest day for the players. The seventh game of the match is scheduled for Tuesday, December 3, at 5 PM local time of Singapore, with Gukesh playing White. Best of 14 match will decide the Champion of World Chess
