World Chess Championship: 9th game between Gukesh and Liren ends in draw

Singapore: Stalemate continued in the World Chess Championship as the ninth game between Indian challenger D Gukesh and defending champion Ding Liren of China ended in yet another draw to remain level on points here on Thursday.

The sixth consecutive draw -- and seventh of the match -- left both players on an identical tally of 4.5 points each, still shy of 3 points in order to win the championship.

The two players signed peace after 54 moves. Friday is a rest day and they will resume the battle on Saturday.

Just five more classical games are left to be played in the USD 2.5 million prize money championship and if a tied result happens after 14 rounds, there will be games under faster time control to determine the winner. The 32-year-old Liren had won the opening game while the 18-year-old Gukesh had emerged victorious in the third game.

The second, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth games had ended in draws.

Gukesh said he would like to improve his performance in critical moments.

"It is still the same, the approach ... we just try to play good chess. In the last few games I have managed to play very good chess and for me the main thing will be go there with the same energy, play the same level of chess and slightly improve on some critical moments.

"I just hope to continue playing good games, and hopefully, at some point when I do the right things, I believe that the results will come," said Gukesh.

In the remaining five games, Liren will have white thrice, but Gukesh said there was not much difference (whether having black or white).

“Nowadays there is not much difference between white and black, because of the computers .. all the lines that were considered dubious, the computers make them work. Now its an equal game with both colours, so I wouldn’t say it’s a huge advantage." The Catalan opening has featured in top level games for many decades now and Gukesh chose it this time to test Liren’s preparation.

The Chinese yet again sank in to a long thought in the opening and found some creative ideas to keep the white forces at bay. The first exchange took place on the 14th turn with Gukesh using just 15 minutes of his allotted two hours in the first time-control while Liren had used over 50 minutes.

Gukesh probably got his only chance to exert some pressure on his 20th turn but the Indian went for what optically looked better for white only to find Liren surprising him with some well-disguised tricks.

It looked as though not much had slipped but once he was under 30 minutes, the Chinese came up with a series of correct moves to leave the position level.

Gukesh used up all his extra time and by the 23rd move he was actually behind Liren by a few minutes. Another couple of pawns had changed hands by then along with two minor pieces making the position just very close to equal.

In counting, Gukesh had an extra pawn to boast off but it was evident that it was about to fall soon. It was time for Gukesh to decide if he would go for an easy draw or still try for some unwarranted complications.

After making his 24th move, Gukesh was seen staring at his score sheet, a pretty clear indication that he had come to terms with what the result was going to be.

Liren halted for sometime before playing the equalizing capture of the extra pawn of white. Gukesh exchanged queens soon and then a pair of rooks to let the position be just a dead-draw.

The players still had to complete 40 moves as per rules before the point could be split and suddenly Liren started to get ambitious although the game never really left the boundaries of a draw.

A pure rook and pawns endgame was soon on board and eventually the players changed everything to be left with bare kings. The game lasted 54 moves.

Asked if the game was according to his preparation after 13 moves, Gukesh said he had seen the idea of pushing his queen side pawn but probably not in the exact position.

On whether he was following the analysis done by many experts on the social media, Gukesh replied in the negative.

“In general during events I do not follow any social media, if there is something I need to know my team informs." Liren said there was no need to block social media during the match and he sometimes follows it and "sometimes it’s a way to release the stress." There were some lighter moments towards the end of the press conference when both the players were asked if there was one opportunity to sneak and have a peek at the engines, what moment would that be.

“I wouldn’t want to cheat at any point," Gukesh said.

"Today I did not have any chance, so may be I will use it for the future (games)," said Ding in a more joyous way.

The Moves: 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 Bb4+ 4.Bd2 Be7 5.Bg2 d5 6.Nf3 0–0 7.0–0 c6 8.Qc2 Nbd7 9.Rd1 b6 10.Bc3 Bb7 11.Nbd2 Qc7 12.Rac1 Rfd8 13.b4 c5 14.bxc5 bxc5 15.Qb2 Nb6 16.Ba5 dxc4 17.Nxc4 Bxf3 18.Bxb6 axb6 19.Bxf3 Ra6 20.Qb5 Rxa2 21.Nxb6 Qa7 22.Qb1 Rb8 23.dxc5 Ra6 24.Qb5 Bxc5 25.Qxc5 Qxb6 26.Qxb6 Raxb6 27.Rc6 Rxc6 28.Bxc6 g5 29.Kg2 Rb2 30.Kf1 Kg7 31.h3 h5 32.Ra1 Rc2 33.Bb5 Rc5 34.Bd3 Nd7 35.f4 gxf4 36.gxf4 Rc3 37.Kf2 Nc5 38.Ke3 Nxd3 39.exd3 Rc2 40.Kf3 Rd2 41.Ra3 Kg6 42.Rb3 f6 43.Ra3 Kf5 44.Ra5+ e5 45.fxe5 Rxd3+ 46.Ke2 Rxh3 47.exf6+ Kxf6 48.Kf2 h4 49.Kg2 Rg3+ 50.Kh2 Kg6 51.Rb5 Rg5 52.Rxg5+ Kxg5 53.Kh3 Kf6 54.Kxh4. Game drawn.