Dommaraju Gukesh does not like draws. You offer one to him, he will stare back at you, wonder for some time, and then not take it. Call it ambition, call it false optimism, or just the exuberance of youth, it makes for fascinating viewing, just as it did in game 8 of his FIDE World Championship match against Ding Liren.
At one point, it looked like Gukesh might look back on this game 8 as the one where he lost the world championship. From a completely winning position, he went to a completely losing position with a series of inaccuracies in three consecutive moves between move 26 and 28. He eventually stabilized the position to an extent where he had a draw on the board on move 41, but he refused to take it. He would later go on to admit that it was a misjudgment, but not one that he realized on the board.
At the media centre, there was shock. There were media personnel who had packed up their belongings, ready to trudge over for the press conference. It was almost that certain that Gukesh wouldn't take any risks in that position, and would once again be happy to take a draw with black pieces. Maurice Ashley, FIDE's master of ceremonies in Singapore, had put everything else aside to get ready for the press conference. The fans were ready to applaud another fight from the two players and head for the exits. It was an excruciating wait for Gukesh's father Rajinikanth too. He was seen pacing through the corridors of the hotel for an hour, phone in hand, following the intricacies that were developing in the position.
Of course Gukesh, being Gukesh, does not like draws. So he played on. Bums were put back on seats. The tension continued. The engines gave Ding a 1.1 advantage, hardly an objective win, but a clearly better position for white. That there weren't too many terrors in the position for Gukesh in the 10 moves that ensued before the two players eventually took the draw, was down to some precise play from him and Ding not quite finding the best way to press home that advantage.
It was a really tense period, though. The players played on for about 40 minutes after Gukesh refused the draw, and the only question running on mouths around the venue was "Why?" There was many a dumbstruck person. Clearly, Gukesh wanted to press on and find a chance to win. There probably wasn't a chance anyway. But it was another example of how he is wired.
He later put it down to his style being shaped by his chess upbringing, without the assistance of a computer, coming up the ranks in the sport in Chennai. GM Srinath Narayanan had told ESPN before the start of the world championships that if all players just played computer moves all the time, there would only be draws in chess. That feeds into how the likes of Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi always think of winning and gaining an advantage rather than minimising risk and ensuring they don't lose.
Gukesh had said after game 6 that he refused a draw only because he wanted to play a few more moves and see what happened in the position. Then, there were far fewer risks for him in the position. Here, the decision flirted with being rash and on the cusp of self-sabotage. Perhaps, it is now a lesson learned for Gukesh too, that playing some more and seeing where it takes him is not always a wise choice.
While it's important to reiterate that chess is played on the board and not with an engine, it is also instructive that Gukesh said if he'd seen the engine evaluation on move 41, he would have agreed a draw right then. In simple terms, he had misjudged the position. In another scenario, he could've been wallowing in a deep psychological blow if Ding had found the accurate follow-ups to force a victory.
It is understandable that misjudgments happen at this stage of the world championship. The margins for error are tiny. Of course, there are circumstances that explain these two players not being at their accurate best.
Gukesh is 18 years old and on world championship debut. As calm as he may sound after the games, he's still a young man living his dream. Imagine being as close as he is to being the youngest world champion ever. The burden of history shouldn't be his, but this is a player who stated, as an 11-year-old talking to ChessBase India's Sagar Shah, that he wanted to be the youngest world champion ever.
This scenario would've played out multiple times in his head before, but dealing with simulations in your brain cannot nearly prepare you for the ways in which a world championship tests you.
Ding is coming off a year filled with trials and tribulations, both in terms of his chess and his mental health. So, when you see the accuracy ratings for both players drop down to the early 90s, from the 97s and 98s it was operating on in the opening few games, you understand why.
This world championship is now very likely to be decided by which player finally converts a better position on the board into a win. Both of them have now come close multiple times, but in failing to score that decisive point, they're only leaving the door open for pressure and nerves to do funnier things with their brain in the last six games of this match.
It is fascinating viewing in what has definitely not been the highest quality world championship of all time. But It's still anybody's guess which way the title will go in the days that remain in Singapore.