Courtesy: Google
On Sunday, December 1, in the Game 6 of the World Chess Championship 2024 match, challenger Dommaraju Gukesh, the Indian GM, agreed to a draw with world champion Ding Liren, the Chinese GM, following a hard-fought 46-move spectacle in Singapore with the black pieces. The fourth draw in six games meant that both Dommaraju Gukesh and Ding Liren are level on three points each ahead of the second rest day in the title match.
In the Game 6 of the World Chess Championship 2024 match, Ding Liren employed the famous London System, which led to him gaining a significant advantage of 40 minutes on the clock against Dommaraju Gukesh after just 20 moves as he spent only seven minutes to churn them out. But then, Ding had a long thought of his own before making the 21st move as he wasn’t quite happy with the position on the board.
Dommaraju Gukesh didn't accept the initial draw offer from Ding Liren
Following that, Ding Liren was seemingly playing for the draw, but the indirect offer was rejected by Dommaraju Gukesh, who looked for a positive result in his favour. Although, on the 35th move, the Indian GM finally agreed to a Queen trade, and after the time control was lifted on the 40th move, Dommaraju Gukesh kept pushing the envelope until he settled for a draw on move 46 by threefold repetition.
In the post-game statement, Dommaraju Gukesh discussed his decision to not agree to a draw before time control was lifted. He was quoted as saying, as per the Times of India, “I decided to repeat moves, and Qh4 came as a total surprise, because I think his queen is not so well-placed here, it's better placed on the queenside.”
“I just thought I always have counterplay and I saw no reason to take a draw now... I wanted to make a few more moves and see what happened,” remarked Ding Liren after a hard-fought Game 6 in the World Chess Championship 2024 match.
