Another thrilling contest at the most critical time; with three games remaining, the Champion Ding needed to at least win once and had two opportunities with the White pieces to do so.
After reaching a perfectly equal opening tableau, a most innocuous-looking positional slip foreshadowed a deeper positional deficiency in Gukesh’s handling of the position–his dark-squared bishop is best returned to its original square where it does not interfere with its fellow pieces and functions perfectly fine. This came to light with a blunder on move 16 that led to a strong advantage for Ding which he confidently converted to victory, ending with a flourish that forced resignation in the face of checkmate.
The match is now tied at +2=8-2 each with two games remaining; if the match is tied, a match of Rapid and Blitz games will determine the Champion.
Tomorrow is a rest day.
Game 13 is Wednesday 11 December 4am EST.
https://lichess.org/broadcast provides the games live.
