Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh has faced defeat in the World Chess Championship. He lost to defending champion Ding Liren of China in a tense first match. Playing with the black pieces, Liren has an early lead in the match of 14 games. These competitions will run till the middle of December. Gukesh said after the first match that this happens. It’s a long match. I expected a similar performance from Liren. We have a lot to play for ahead of us and it will be very exciting.
Gukesh made a mistake in the beginning
By winning while playing with Black Peace, Liren not only got full points, but also a psychological advantage in the competition for the $2.5 million prize money. The first player to reach 7.5 points will be the winner. The world champion’s youngest challenger, 18-year-old Gukesh, made an early mistake by moving the king’s front pawn two houses. Such a move shows an aggressive attitude and Liren responded with a ‘French defence’. “I was nervous but got comfortable after the start of the game but then lost the rhythm,” Gukesh said.
Gukesh adopted Viswanathan’s plan
Gukesh adopted the same strategy that Viswanathan Anand adopted in 2001 when he won his first World Championship title against Alexey Shirov of Spain. Gukesh had a half-hour advantage until the 12th move but after eight moves Leeren got the extra minutes to prove that he had overcome his early problems. After this he performed brilliantly and won in 42 moves. Leeren said in the press conference after the match that I have not won a classical match for a long time but managed to win today. I was lucky because I missed twice. He said he was nervous at first in the first match, so I did something different that I hadn’t done in a long time and this strategy worked.
(Input: PTI)