Courtesy: FIDE
On Monday, December 9, in the Game 12 of the World Chess Championship 2024 match, Indian GM Dommaraju Gukesh suffered a defeat at the hands of world champion Ding Liren from China, in a 41-move game with the black pieces in Singapore. Because of this vital win, which came after losing the previous game just a day ago, Ding Liren levelled the scoreline in the World Chess Championship 2024 match, six points each to him and Dommaraju Gukesh, with just two games remaining.
In the Game 12 of the World Chess Championship 2024 match, Ding Liren chose a quiet opening, and Dommaraju Gukesh managed to keep himself well in the contest in the early stages. But, when Ding started to find a series of powerful moves with the white pieces, the position of Gukesh started to get worse, especially when the world champion played 17.Qd2, a computer-approved move.
Luckily I have a rest day tomorrow to recover: Dommaraju Gukesh
From that point onwards, Dommaraju Gukesh was on the backfoot as Ding Liren stifled his position further, but when the challenger played 23.Bg5, he was in deep trouble. Ultimately, Ding managed to take the game completely away from Gukesh, who resigned on move 41 after the world champion promoted a pawn into a queen, which meant that the World Chess Championship 2024 match is now wide open again.
In the press conference, Dommaraju Gukesh seemed to keep his spirits up after a tough loss, and said, as per Chess.com, “Obviously this game is a bit of a disappointment. Luckily I have a rest day tomorrow to recover, but it’s nice to know the score is still tied and this game is not a huge blow for my chances, it’s still evenly-matched. I’ll just try to play good games!”
Meanwhile, Ding Liren was happy to admit that he has come to terms with losing his title by saying, "If I cannot win today, also if I cannot win the last two games, maybe I’ll just lose the title, which I also accept." As we've seen, however, he's not ready to retire just yet.”
