Indian challenger D. Gukesh broke the deadlock in the FIDE World Chess Championship on Sunday in Singapore, securing a pivotal victory in Game 11 over reigning world champion Ding Liren. After seven consecutive draws in the match, Gukesh’s win marked his first lead in the series with three games remaining.
The game unfolded with both players locked in an intense time scramble early on. At one point, Ding was left with just over eight minutes to make 16 moves, while Gukesh had under 15 minutes to complete 15 moves. Reflecting on the tension of the game, Gukesh noted, “At some point, it was a blitz game. I was happy when I saw him think so long. I was happy to get that time advantage.”
Under immense pressure, Ding made a costly blunder on his 28th move, moving his queen to c8. Realizing his mistake immediately, Ding was unable to recover as Gukesh sacrificed his queen in a decisive maneuver. Ding resigned shortly after, handing Gukesh the crucial win.
Both players had burned a significant amount of time early in the game. Ding spent over an hour on just five moves, including 38 minutes on his fourth move and 22 minutes on his second. The world champion was caught off guard by Gukesh’s unorthodox Reti Opening with the white pieces. Ding lamented, “40 minutes just went nowhere, to calculate some nonsense variations.”
Despite the time advantage in his favor, Gukesh himself spent an hour deliberating over his 11th move. Prior to that, he had built a commanding time lead of an hour and seven minutes after just eight moves, which was eventually depleted.
With the win, Gukesh takes a crucial step towards challenging Ding’s title, as the 18-year-old leads with just three games left in the match.
