This spectacular clash featured world-class preparation and skillful, combative play providing all manner of complexity: characteristics that makes chess beautiful if useless.
From the outset White challenges Black’s preparation of little-explored territory, and while a technical advantage did not come of it the demands it made of Black created the conditions of the time scramble where Gukesh’s accuracy triumphed over Ding’s imprecision.
Gukesh came with a prepared and atypical opening that caused Ding to take enormous amounts of time early. Gukesh in turn took a full hour to find his 13th move, and the position became quite complex and demanding of precision.
After Black’s 13th both players had to adjust to a much more restrictive approach to time management, and in such a complicated position the conditions were ripe to test the excellence of the talent at the board. After precision mixed with mild inaccuracies, Ding failed to find the necessary defensive move on move 26 and followed it with a game-losing blunder that gave Gukesh a victory which further is considered a miniature as it lasted less than 30 moves.
Enjoy the interactive game viewer below, no chess knowledge required.
The teenage Challenger Gukesh leads the match 6-5 with three games remaining.
Game 12 is Monday 9 December 4am EST.
https://lichess.org/broadcast provides live coverage of the games.
