Chess - The 2024 World Championship (Game 13 Review)
The penultimate game of the 2024 World Championship match subsides in a draw, and it is not without takeaway! GM Gukesh D and team revisit the opening moves from Game 1 that benefitted defending champion GM Ding Liren, with this game of positional brilliance by the 18 year old challenger, one that Ding narrowly dodged by the order in which Gukesh timed said moves.
The notation I discuss below belongs solely to Game 13 of the World Championship that recently concluded:
Move 40 eases time for both players to abandon ship.
I have been more inclined towards Ding managing to defend his title, but this was Gukesh's game, not Game 12 level of brilliance, but somewhere behind that and Game 1. Ding got adequately lucky, and for luck favoring the prepared, Ding remains so aplenty, even though this year is not his best since his peak times.
When GMs Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana drew 11 games, game 12 was more decided than decisive. This year's championship pits balance up against its toes.
If I am to pick my favorite games in this match, they are 1 and 12 without a doubt. Ding took his pawn and knight troops and transcended the very meaning presented on the board. Gukesh this game used 1. e4 being sure Ding would count on his French defense strengths, which was indeed an improvisation, but the fact that he put Ding in defensive mode to the possibility of near submission, proves this game was one for intellect too. Brilliant performance, GM Gukesh D. I stand by Ding, but tomorrow's game is equally the spotlight where your current age number and that of world champion may become synonymous in Chess history. GM Ding Liren won me over with his best games, enough for me to look up what peak Ding was even like. As for tomorrow's game, regardless of how the win is achieved, a win is a win. This is one occasion where diplomacy and straightforwardness see eye to eye.
Ahead of this championship, some players predicted the match wouldn't last as many games. That has aged quicker than move 40.
