D Gukesh and Ding Liren played out another thrilling draw in game 8 of the 2024 World Chess Championship, after a 51-move game that ended after 4 hours and 35 minutes. It was a game that swung wildly, with both Ding and Gukesh spurning great chances to win, coupled with the Indian rejecting the offer of a draw before eventually settling for the stalemate 10 moves later. The match is now tied overall at 4-4 and we head into game 9 tomorrow, where Gukesh will play with white, after which we have a rest day.
Ding opted for his favoured English opening with white, but Gukesh had a suprise with his early moves, resulting in Ding being caught out and spending a lot of time considering his next moves. Gukesh gave credit to his second, Gregorz Gajewski for his preparation, saying "I'd like to thank my team and hopefully we have more such interesting ideas."
Ding still held a slight advantage, but a blunder on move 22 followed by accurate moves from Gukesh saw the game swing wildly in the Indian's favour. However, just as it seemed that Gukesh could press on for the win, a series of three inaccurate moves (26-28) allowed Ding back into the game, and the defending champion responded with accurate moves to move into a position of victory himself.
Ding was extremely behind in time for much of the game, but his moves under pressure were intuitively good, However, Gukesh used up his time to fight back into a slightly losing position. As the players cleared move 40, Ding offered a draw with a three-fold repitition, but Gukesh strangely rejected it - despite being in a disadvantageous position. "I didn't think I was in much danger. I kind of felt like I lost control but I never felt I was losing, because it was still a concrete game," said Gukesh in the post-match press conference.
As the game progressed beyond, it devolved into an exchange of queens and then there was no other position other than a draw, which the players agreed to after move 51.
You can relive the action, as it happened, below: