WCC R11: Gukesh Scores to Take the Lead with 3 Games to Go
12.8.24 Gukesh Dommaraju defeated Ding Liren in Game 11 of the FIDE 2024 World Chess Championship to take the lead for the first time in this Match with only three games to go. In a Reti Opening, the players used copious amounts of time in the early middlegame. Gukesh took over an hour on the single move 11. g3 after which Ding bashed out 11...Nc5 and was better. The clock was a huge factor in this game--Gukesh had 25 minutes to play 25 moves--and he was under great pressure. When Ding played 15...g6, Gukesh got a second life and won when Ding blundered on move 28.
Thinking Fast, Thinking Slow is not only the title of Nobel laureate Daniel Kahneman's ground-breaking book, it was also the theme of Game 11 in the 2024 FIDE World Chess Championship Match. Game 11 was Gukesh's opportunity to go for it--and that he did with a Reti Opening 1.Nf3 d5 2.c4 d5 3.b4 c5 4.e3. At this point Peter Leko, a former World Championship Match contentender himself, noted that he had never seen this position before. It took Ding 38:17 to come up with 4...Nf6 after which Gukesh blitzed out 5.a3. Another long think ensued and Ding was down a full hour on move 5.
Then, something unexpected happened. Despite being way up on the clock, Gukesh made some critical moves from move 6 through 10 in just seconds. On move 11, it was Gukesh's turn to go into the think tank--taking over an hour--the longest think on one move in this Match thus far. Ding returned the psychological favor by playing 11...Nc5 in just 5 seconds!
If Ding played 15...e6 his position was solid with nothing to fear. Instead he played 15...g6 and this gave Gukesh a second life. A non-thematic weird position was on the board with both players having about a minute per move to make time control.
On 23.Rab1, Anish Giri said, "I think White will win this game." There was more chess to play, however and the tension was extreemly high. When Gukesh played 28. Rdb1, there was only one move 28...Nb4. It seemed logical and a move that Ding would make in a few seconds but he collapsed with 28...Qc8 and it was over. Gukesh played 29.Qxc6 and Ding offered his hand in resignation.
Game 12 is tomorrow, Monday, December 9th.
Ding Liren was very close to taking the lead himself in this Match. Instead, one move changed everything and he is now behind in the final stretch on the classical portion of the Match.
(image courtesy FIDE/Eng Chin An )
Fun Fact: Gukesh Dommaraju took over one hour--the longest think of this Match so far--on move 11.
The Match continues with Game 12 on Monday, December 9th at 4:00 a.m. eastern (5:00 p.m. local time in Singapore).
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