World Chess Championship: D Gukesh Squanders Advantage To Settle For Draw In Game 7

The youngest-ever challenger to the world crown, D Gukesh let go of a very promising position and had to settle for a fourth consecutive draw against defending champion Ding Liren of China in a marathon seventh game of the World Chess Championship on Tuesday. The stalemate, which came after five hours and 22 minutes of nerve-wracking play, left both players on an identical tally of 3.5 points each, still shy of four more points in order to win the championship. The two players signed peace after 72 moves. It turned out to be a tough day in office again for Liren, who was staring at a losing position for a long time, till Gukesh blundered. The Indian, playing white, got a huge advantage but miscalculated to let the Chinese off the hook in what was the longest game of the match thus far.

It was a miraculous save by Liren after getting into what the chess pundits termed as a lost rook and minor piece endgame.

Earlier in the day, Gukesh yet again tightened the noose in the opening. He has clearly been the better player when it's come to springing opening surprises.

Moving his knight forward on the first move, the Indian faced the Neo Grunfeld defense from Liren, and as early as on the seventh turn, Gukesh came up with a surprise idea.

Liren, who seemed to have solved his opening problems in the last couple of games, was at the receiving end on Tuesday, and even though he chose normal continuation, white's position remained preferable.

Gukesh exerted pressure through the centre and got a dangerous-looking passed pawn in the early stages of the middle game, with the advantage of the bishop pair only adding to Liren's woes.

The middle game saw inaccuracies from both sides, and it seemed that Liren was close to obtaining