Bengaluru: What’s the mark of a champion? It’s when you’ve forgotten what a win feels like and you still manage to find the steel in you. Ding Liren hadn’t won a classical game in 304 days when he walked into the soundproofed, fishtank-like playing arena at the Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore for Game 1 on Monday. His challenger – India’s D Gukesh – was already seated at the board in his giant-sized gaming chair. They shook hands and the Chinese settled into his regular-sized, unobtrusive-looking ergonomic chair.
The players had apparently picked out their chairs from seven options that they were offered by the organisers. Ding made the most of his choice and didn’t leave his chair for close to four hours. When he finally did, it was after move 41, with victory in the bag. Time control had been reached and Gukesh sat forlorn, by himself, with face buried in his hands. He had a fresh 30 minutes on the clock but there were no more ideas or resources for White. The game had slipped away.
The reigning world champion had masterfully placed his teenaged opponent in a chokehold, opening the match with a 1-0 lead. This is Ding’s third classical win with Black against Gukesh. It’s also the first time since Viswanathan Anand’s 2010 World Championship match against Veselin Topalov that a decisive result has been seen in Game 1. Back then, Anand too had lost with White pieces in Game 1 but he eventually went on to win the match.
“Of course, I feel very good — I haven’t won a single classical game in a long time,” Ding said, beaming, at the press conference that followed. “Because it was the first game I thought he might be nervous at the start of the match, so I tried to play something unusual that I haven’t played in a long time, and it turned out to work perfectly.”
Gukesh chose the King’s pawn opening and was met with the French Defense by Ding. The Chinese GM had sprung the counter-attacking French surprise on Ian Nepomniachtchi during their match last year, but had ended up losing that game. Gukesh went for a rather rare knight retreat with 6. Nce2 (instead of Nf3), known as the Steinitz Variation, named after the first world champion Wilhelm Steinitz. Gukesh looked confident in his preparation, as Ding pondered for 27 minutes as early as move 7. Gukesh blitzed out 10.g4 and Ding went on to fall behind on his clock by around 50 minutes as the young Indian, hands tucked in his pockets, paced behind his chair.
Gukesh took up over 30 minutes on his clock to play the perfectly natural Qe2 on move 17. Ding went on to bang out a sequence of exquisite moves, particularly 18. Nb2, opening up the line of fire on the pawn on c3 and prepping to activate the Queen – almost instantly stirred up counterplay on the queenside. Gukesh refused a queen exchange and instead retreated his queen to e1, which the engine disliked right away. Ding lit up the middlegame and over the next couple of moves. He entered both into a space as well as time advantage as White’s pawn weaknesses appeared glaring.
Gukesh was burning through his clock and had the job of making eight moves in under 2 minutes. It was soon down to a dangerously low 45 seconds for 7 moves. The Indian may have had some tactical compensation perhaps to work with had he played 30. Bc5 instead of 30. Qc2. He managed to make it to move 40, but his position was dead lost and the game was over for all practical purposes.
He sat there stewing in his pain as Ding sipped on water and munched on snacks in the players’ lounge. “This time I sat at the board and wasn’t hiding in the players’ lounge like in the first game last time. It’s totally new for me,” Ding said. “I did not really feel hungry or thirsty earlier and I really needed to be at the board and figure out my idea.”
Gukesh, a touch crestfallen at the early jolt in a match where he is seen as the favourite, was asked if he was nervous: “For sure I was nervous. It would be surprising if I said that I wasn’t. I calmed down after the game started. I think I surprised him. I was playing good moves at the start.” The pain still raw, he acknowledged he could have done a lot better:
“Obviously it was not a great game by me. When all this happened (Nb2 Qc4) it was a tactical oversight by me… It can happen. About my opponent’s form, I expected nothing else. I expected the best version of him. We have a long match ahead and it’s only more exciting now.”
In a match where the world was betting against him, Ding flipped the script. It’s still early days — 13 more classical games to go. Comebacks and collapses await. Ding, riddled with form concerns for a while, showed up just when it mattered. He cut through the impediments of his recent past with resilience and showed why experience isn’t such an ugly word. This is what makes champions great. It’s the tribe of the undeterred.
