After the twists and turns in the World Chess Championship Games 11 and 12, the match has now come to a very unpredictable juncture. Uncertainty is an inevitable part of every sport, but that it should be a result of poor quality of play is quite rare at the top-level championships. The championship is now going through a turbulent stage where nothing can be predicted.

After Gukesh’s loss in the 12th game, world No.1 Magnus Carlsen has criticised the role of ‘Team Gukesh’, or Gukesh’s seconds. Though the others, except Hikaru Nakamura, have been silent on the matter, most of the chess world shares the view. And not without reasons.

It is accepted that the players have completely different styles. Ding Liren has always been considered ‘positionally and strategically incomplete’ for his superb playing level. He often compensates for his shortcomings with great imagination, creativity and brilliant tactical strength. Gukesh is known to have a superb sense of strategy in the limited positions he chooses to play and is also as strong in tactics. The reason for people to expect the match to end in favour of Gukesh was mainly the poor form of the Champion versus accuracy of the Challenger.

The very first game of the match assumed an unexpected shape when Gukesh played a position he had never played earlier. Despite lagging behind significantly in time, Ding turned the tables on Gukesh with great sense of initiative, registering a very smooth victory. Though Gukesh equalised by winning Game 3, he continued to play in the same style, opting for positions he probably memorised rather than understood. As a result, the match is seeing very erratic moments in every game.

However, the last two games have probably seen the worst moments in the match. In Game 11, Gukesh came up with a great strategic idea as early as move 5, a theoretical novelty based on a specific plan. He played the first eight moves in less than a minute. However, he missed the right follow up in the next two moves and landed in a worse position. Somewhere the strategic gist of the position was missed, and the reason could be that Gukesh had never played the Benoni before.

However, Gukesh realised that he had messed up and spent over one hour for his 11th move. Ding probably overrated his position and tried to trap Gukesh’s Queen instead of cementing his fundamental strategic advantage. This attempt failed as Gukesh found a brilliant tactical sequence, thereby considerably improving his position. However, Gukesh’s victory was not due to his advantageous position, but mainly due to Ding’s “club-level blunder” – as some commentators put it – on move 28. The game revealed Gukesh’s great tactical ability and things looked very simple with just three rounds left.

When players take the lead in a two-player match, they are expected to play risk-free. However, Gukesh played a rarely adopted inferior variation, probably without even realising that he was transposing in a ‘Pirc Defence Reverse position two tempos down’. Ding, once an expert of King’s Indian Defence, showed great skill in judging the Pirc defence structure well. Afterall, these are ‘sister openings’. Gukesh, who had not played a single game in the particular setup, played almost without a plan after Ding made a theoretical novelty on move 10.

Both Carlsen and Nakamura were critical of Gukesh’s team for their apparent shallow preparation, which allowed Ding to dominate from the opening. “The opening cost him,” Nakamura said. “Gukesh just put himself in a very bad situation from early on”, Carlsen added.

Carlsen was also critical of both the players “playing their preparation anyway despite the match situation”. Carlsen now sees Ding as the favourite. I still don’t. Because I know how good Gukesh is at understanding, grasping the positions he regularly plays. He is a complete player in his own style of play, the positions he plays as per his own ideas. It is very important for him to “be himself.”

It is clear that the match could see more twists and turns. The uncertainty in the match is at its peak now, I must say.