The world’s youngest World Championship challenger, India’s D. Gukesh played out a safe draw against defending champion China’s Ding Liren in the fifth round of the FIDE World Chess Championship 2024 with White at the Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore on Saturday.
The World Championship series is tied at 2.5-2.5 after the first five rounds.
Playing with the lighter pieces, Gukesh started with e4 and played another French Defense Game -- a repeat of the first round -- with Ding.
AS IT HAPPENED | GUKESH VS DING WORLD CHESS-CHAMPIONSHIP 2024 GAME 5 HIGHLIGHTS
Gukesh traded queen and one rook early on in the game and looked set to unleash the attack on Black King.
The Chinese was made to think deeply in the opening, but his accurate moves kept the contest enticing. He spent 33 minutes playing his 14th move, h6, which gave Gukesh a healthy time advantage on the clock in the opening.
The Indian then made accurate moves and converted the middle game into a sharp one. He made one big mistake on the 23rd move by taking Black’s bishop with a pawn instead of a rook. However, Ding could not capitalise on Gukesh’s mistake as both players mutually agreed to draw the game after 40 moves.
There will be a total of 14 rounds in this World Championship with the first to reach 7.5 points will be crowned the World Champion.
Ding beat Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia in 2022 to hold the title of World Champion.
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