The eighth game of the World Chess Championship offered four and a half hours of the best board action on Wednesday. The world champion
Ding Liren had White and again chose a new first move: 1. c4, the English opening. But from the second move on, his challenger Gukesh steered him into a prepared variation. At the end of the first nine moves, Ding had used half an hour more thinking time than his opponent.
The result was an original middle game that has hardly ever been seen in a World Cup game. Ding held back both central pawns and instead moved with a walking rook in the middle of the board in front of the pawns, which goes against every principle of chess. Towers belong on the edge, on open lines, so as not to be attacked themselves.
Ding always had to make sure that he had options for retreat so as not to lose the tower. When he was finally able to exchange it on move 21, his other rook got him into trouble on move 22. Suddenly Gukesh was able to seize the initiative with a pawn advance and got two passed pawns on the queenside and it looked like a victory for him.
As in the previous round, Ding, in his distress, created a tactical mess in which Gukesh made a mistake and lost his advantage again.
Soon Ding was making a profit. He didn’t find the best moves either. The position was extremely complicated and both of them were running out of time. When Ding finally offered a draw by repeating moves, Gukesh refused, even though he had a slightly worse chance. He signaled: I want to play! Apparently he is looking for a decision. On move 72, Ding was finally able to force a draw.
The Singapore crowd enjoys the fight. The World Cup does not yet have the aura of the 2023 duel in Astana, Kazakhstan, but the quality of the games and the intensity of the fight are increasing from round to round. With the score at 4:4, there are still six games left to play. Ding seems more self-confident than at the beginning, Gukesh no longer seems quite as carefree. How things will turn out is still completely open.
The ninth round begins on Thursday at 10 a.m. German time. You can read all of our reporter Ulrich Stock’s reports from the World Chess Championship in Singapore here. Grandmaster Niclas Huschenbeth also provides video analyzes of all games for ZEIT ONLINE.
