Level head necessary in competitive chess

At the conclusion of round nine of the 2024 FIDE World Chess Championship on Thursday, the players were tied at 4.5-4 .5 in the 14-game encounter.

 The first player to reach the 7.5 points mark wins the contest. If the match is tied 7-7, a series of rapid and blitz games will decide the result.

Before he won the first game, world champion Ding Liren had beaten challenger Gukesh Dommaraju and grandmaster Max Warmerdam in January at the competitive Tata Steel Tournament, in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands.

Those were the only classical  victories Liren achieved for 2024 before this match.

Analysts have said that both sides missed winning chances. Grandmaster Jonathan Speelman compared Liren vs Dommaraju with the 1963 match of Botvinnik vs Petrosian. Both Dommaraju and Petrosian lost their first games of their matches and Petrosian came back to win the entire contest.

Can Dommaraju do so also? Speelman has been quoted as saying “Petrosian, who had never beaten Botvinnik, played utterly abysmally in game one, and, rather than panic, simply carried on as if nothing had happened. This seemed to confound Botvinnik, and Petrosian famously won game five, and later the match.” Speelman went on to emphasize the importance of keeping a level head as the battle rages.

Friday was a rest day, but games were scheduled for yesterday and today.

Chess game

White: Gukesh Dommaraju

Black: Ding Liren

Event: 2024 World Championship

Match, Sentosa, Singapore, November27

Type of Game: Queen’s Gambit Declined, Exchange Variation

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 d5 3. c4 e6 4. cxd5 exd5 5. Nc3 c6 6. Qc2 g6 7. h3 Bf5 8. Qb3 Qb6 9. g4 Qxb3 10. axb3 Bc2 11. Bf4 h5 12. Rg1 hxg4 13. hxg4 Nbd7 14. Nd2 Rg8 15. g5 Nh5 16. Bh2 Rh8

17. f3 Ng7 18. Bg3 Rh5 19. e4 dxe4 20. fxe4 Ne6 21. Rc1 Nxd4 22. Bf2 Bg7 23. Ne2 Nxb3

24. Rxc2 Nxd2 25. Kxd2 Ne5 26. Nd4 Rd8 27. Ke2 Rh2 28. Bg2 a6 29. b3 Rd7 30. Rcc1 Ke7 31. Rcd1 Ke8 32. Bg3 Rh5 33. Nf3 Nxf3 34. Kxf3 Bd4 35. Rh1 Rxg5 36. Bh3 f5 37. Bf4 Rh5 1-0. Black resigns.