World Chess Championship: D Gukesh Holds Ding Liren With Black Pieces

Indian challenger D Gukesh held defending champion Ding Liren of China to a draw with black pieces in an intense sixth game of the World Chess Championship to remain level on points in Singapore on Sunday. The third draw in a row left both players on an identical tally of 3 points apiece, still shy of 4.5 more points in order to win the championship. The two players signed peace after 46 moves. It was the fourth draw of the match. It remains to be seen what strategy the players would opt for as the match moves towards the half-way mark.

The 32-year-old Liren had won the opening game while the 18-year-old Gukesh had emerged victorious in the third game.

The second, fourth and fifth games had ended in draws.

With eight games still remaining in the 14-round match, the battle will resume after the second rest day on Monday. If the scores are tied after the eight games, there is an extra day for tie-break games of shorter duration to decide the next world champion.

Gukesh later said he did not feel any real danger during the sixth game.

"I knew this position till Rb8 (Black's 16th move) and even though I did not know (the next) I thought maybe I am slightly worse but it should be really hard to convert it with white because you cannot push the queen side pawns easily and I always have play on his king.

"I wasn't really that worried at any point," Gukesh said in the post-game conference.

Asked about the rationale behind his decision to avoid repetition early, Gukesh said, "May be I am slightly worse, although I was not even sure about it, but with open files I thought I will have counter play.

"I thought since he's going for a repetition I will just play for a few more moves and see, obviously it was not playing for a win or