SINGAPORE: The press conference remains an important tool not only to gauge what the players feel. It remains the only place to know what the players are happy to talk about.
By this measure alone, the five-game old World Championship tussle between D Gukesh and Ding Liren is already fascinating. While Gukesh keeps his cards close to his chest, the world champion is more open and willing to be honest.
One admission from the Chinese 32-year-old even brought out a subtle change of expression from the Indian. When it was put to the former that he did have an advantage in the fifth game of the Championship, he was frank in admitting '... I didn't realise I had some advantage, something to improve in the next round'.
That was the theme on Saturday, when Gukesh, with white pieces, made the opening move. All the definitive action, leading up to Saturday evening, had come when he had White so anticipation was bubbling a good few hours ahead of the game.
It kind of reached a very polite fever pitch — some hooting, some clapping and a lot of shouting for Gukesh — as soon as the 18-year-old walked past the waiting fans and inside the players' lounge, shortly before 5.00 PM local time (2.30 PM IST).
Roughly two hours into the contest, the Indian, aiming to become the youngest world champion in history, would have liked to wind the clock back to 5.00 PM. He had made an inaccuracy in the middle game — his first in a couple of games — and he suddenly faced an uphill battle to save the game.
Rather than opting to capture Black's e5 bishop with his rook, he had made the mistake of removing it with his pawn. The evaluation bar, which had more or less been dead centre for the first two hours, suddenly gave Black a slight advantage. Leela Zero, an AI model putting out predictions for the world body (FIDE), also reacted wildly as it now pegged Liren's winning chances at 36%.
On commentary for chess24, Judit Polgar was less than impressed with the Indian's move. There was now a line that Liren could use to put a lot of pressure.
As soon as Liren found the best response to that inaccuracy (knight to d3), one could sense an annoyance from the opposite end of the table, something the 18-year-old admitted after the game. He knew he had made a mistake. Now, it was time to batten down the hatches and bring home the draw.
He showed those fighting qualities to make the game secure from a defensive perspective. One more inaccuracy from him would have meant a repeat of game one. He played engine-recommended moves to bring the eval bar back towards the centre. In the process, he also showed he had learned from the first game. He stopped pushing for the win after recognising the game stage.
What also helped him was Ding settling for the draw as he didn't realise the advantage he had. "I didn't see the idea with 28…Rc8, I was thinking of moving the king to the kingside, like some kind of Berlin pawn structure. I didn’t realize that it was a big advantage for me," he said during the post-game press conference. Gukesh, 14 years his junior, did use the word 'blunder' twice but said he knew the draw was the logical endgame as soon as the opposition played Bc6 and not Be6.
"Towards the end of the game, I was very worried about my position after the manoeuvre 27…Be6 followed by 28…Rc8. I was quite relieved when my opponent played 27…Bc6, as I thought it would be a draw," the 18-year-old said.
Apart from Gukesh's capacity to problem solve, the game also saw him doing something different in the Opening. According to FIDE, this was the first time that he had played the exchange variation of the French Defence in a Classical over-the-board game (the queens and a pair of rooks were gone by the 13th move).
With Gukesh playing White, it was safe to assume he would try something out of the box. It came to pass when g4 and, subsequently, g5 were played by him. It destabilised his pawn structure on the king's side but this was him pressing, looking for a slight opening. Liren, though, was ultra solid and didn't give an inch.
Gukesh blinked first but he knew the combination to undo the damage.
