‘Important games to come’

India’s D Gukesh and China’s Ding Liren during their draw in the fifth game at Singapore on Saturday. Pic/PTI

Indian challenger D Gukesh played out a hard-fought draw with white pieces in the fifth game of the World Chess Championship against defending champion Ding Liren of China here Saturday.

The second draw in a row left both players with an identical tally on 2.5 points apiece, still shy of 5 more points in order to win the championship.

The two players signed peace after 40 moves. It was the third draw of the match.

The 32-year-old Liren had won the opening game before the two played out draws in the second and fourth game.

The 18-year-old Gukesh is the youngest ever challenger for the crown and had won the third game on Wednesday.

Gukesh's rook trade blunder

After missing out on a simple rook trade that could have made life easy, Gukesh admitted that he blundered midway, though he survived the scare.

"I realised I blundered but I don't know how it happened. I didn't know how bad it was really... my position almost collapsed. Yeah, I just blundered but it was OK... I was confident that I would hold on," said Gukesh in the post-game press conference.

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On the 14th and 15th move, Liren spent a lot of time and found the best solution when it just looked that Gukesh was ready to press for more.

However, the aggression shown by Gukesh only made things worse for him when a draw looked imminent. "I just should have gone for the rook's trade and the game would have been a draw anyway," said Gukesh.

"I am not sure why the opponent did not play [a Bishop manoeuvre] that I was very worried about," he added.

On his performance so far in the match, Gukesh said, "It is still early, not even halfway through. Important games yet to come. Considering I was trailing after losing the first game, it is nice to be here. I am trying to take one game at a time."

Liren was his usual self and conceded that he did not realise he had advantage in the endgame.

When asked if a draw was a good result as black, the defending champion said, "I always try to play my best and somehow it settled for a draw.

"Results are not ideal because I have got some chances in the games till now, even today I had advantage but I didn't realise, there is something to improve in the next rounds."

It was the first time in the match so far that Liren did not have any problems with his black pieces. The defending champion was at ease as Gukesh yet again employed the King's pawn opening and faced the French defense for the second time in the match.

Having lost the first game in the same opening, caution was the name of the game for Gukesh as he went for the Exchange variation only to find Liren well equipped.

The opening, though has been tried at the top on and off, did not present black with any herculean defensive task as Liren showed after exchanging the queens early.

A pair of rooks changed hands soon after, leaving Gukesh with a level position. But, the Indian, true to his style, tried to create an imbalanced position soon after by allowing Liren to get a protected passed pawn on the sixth rank.

Equal endgame

Liren did not find the most tested continuation and instead went for an equal endgame with Bishops of opposite colours. There was no doubt about the result of the game anymore but Liren decided to part with a pawn and got a fortress which did not allow any player to make further progress.

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