D Gukesh vs Ding Liren, World Chess Championship 2024 Game 7 Highlights: Gukesh fights but Ding forces draw in seventh round

And the match ends in a draw. What a fight shown by Ding. Gukesh will rue his chances but the reining champion did not let the momentum go away from him. A fighting draw for the Chinese who makes sure the World Championship will still be tied at 3.5-3.5 after the seventh round. 

Gukesh is the one who is feeling all the heat now. He has under a minute now. 

Oh good god, how did Gukesh missed this? He retreats bishop to d1 which equalises the position and Ding plays f4, the best move. 

Ding plays f6 and it’s Gukesh’s time to ponder on his next move. 

Oh dear god, Ding now has less than five minutes left on the clock. 

16 minutes and counting for Ding who now looks in terrible shape to hold this position. Gukesh, meanwhile, looks as solid as he can be. Confident on the board and focus on the position. 

Instead of pushing his h pawn, Gukesh plays a passive move -- king to e1 which deflates his huge advantage. The engine which was showing +2.10 for Gukesh shows 0.94 in the favour of the Indian. 

Gukesh now has an extra pawn and this looks like a winning position for the Indian. 

Ding plays king to e5 with just seven seconds left on the clock as his 40th move. It is not the best move and Gukesh will need to capitalise from here. 

Last 59 seconds for Ding and he has to make one more move. 

The game is heading towards a rook endgame where Gukesh, with White, has light-squared bishop while Black has a knight. Ding offered queen traded and Gukesh accepted a few moves ago. 

Ding plays Qd3 which is a mistake but then Gukesh plays Qf4 and it is an ever more bad move at this position. However, White still has the better position. Meanwhile, the clock situation looks almost similar on both sides. 

Gukesh uses over 20 minutes but manages to find the best move in this position -- rook to a5. 

Gukesh has used 16 minutes already but is yet to make a move. His clock has come down to 27 minutes and he, too, is feeling the heat. 

Ding’s queen to b3 was a positional mistake which now gives Gukesh a good positional advantage in addition to time edge. The engine now clearly prefer White. 

Gukesh let Ding take his rook on e1 and he takes back with his other rook. Ding uses his queen to chop off his pawn on a2. Gukesh is now thinking. 

Last few moves

Ding has used over 95 minutes and has less than 25 minutes to make the next 20 moves to reach the all-important 40th move. 

1. Nf3 d5 

2. g3 g6

3. d4 Bg7

4. c4 c6

5. Bg2 Nf6 

6. O-O O-O

7. Re1 dxc4 

8. e4 Bg4

9. Nbd2 c5

10. d5 e6

11. h3 Bxf3

12. Bxf3 exd5

13. exd5 Nbd7

14. Nxc4 b5 

15. Na3 Qb6

16. Bf4 Rfe8 

17. Qd2 Rad8

18. Nc2 Nf8

19. b4

Gukesh uses 18 minutes 30 seconds to play b4. 

The big time edge is sort of fizzling out from Gukesh’s hands. The position is tricky and Ding has been playing with good accuracy, forcing Gukesh to think before playing the most accurate moves in this position. The Indian now has almost 30 minutes time advantage. 

Ding is down to 42 minutes after playing Rfe8. Gukesh connects his rooks by pushing his queen to d2. Ding then brought his other rook to d8. 

1. Nf3 d5 

2. g3 g6

3. d4 Bg7

4. c4 c6

5. Bg2 Nf6 

6. O-O O-O

7. Re1 dxc4 

8. e4 Bg4

9. Nbd2 c5

10. d5 e6

11. h3 Bxf3

12. Bxf3 exd5

13. exd5 Nbd7

14. Nxc4 b5 

15. Na3 Qb6

Gukesh takes back the extra pawn from Ding with his knight to c4 move but before that Ding played a key move -- Knight bd7 -- the olny good move in that position. 

Gukesh now has a 40 minute time advantage on the board. Ding is feeling the heat. 

Basically it’s all about space. Gukesh’s centre is extremely solid and he has more space to develop his pieces. Most of his pieces are synchronized and Ding is struggling to make good moves. 

1. Nf3 d5 

2. g3 g6

3. d4 Bg7

4. c4 c6

5. Bg2 Nf6 

6. O-O O-O

7. Re1 dxc4 

8. e4 Bg4

9. Nbd2 c5

Ding advances his bishop to g4. Gukesh responds with knight bd2 and when the Chinese played c5, it looks like a positional inaccuracy and the eval bar is favouring Gukesh now. 

Ding spends 28 minutes to play d takes c4 but Gukesh instantly pushed his e pawn to fourth rank -- e4 and the Chinese is forced to thing, again. 

Ding is still thinking for his seventh move. Gukesh played his rook to e1 in his last move. 

1. Nf3 d5 

2. g3 g6

3. d4 Bg7

4. c4 c6

5. Bg2 Nf6 

6. O-O O-O

The game transformed into a Neo-Grunfeld Defense from King’s Indian Defense after both White and Black castled on the sixth move. 

Quickfire start from Gukesh as he completes five moves inside a minute. 

Gukesh starts with Nf3 and Ding responds with d5. 

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World Chess Championship 2024, Game 7 Live Streaming Info: When, where to watch Gukesh vs Ding Liren seventh round?

All you need to know about Round 7 of the World Chess Championship 2024 match between D. Gukesh and Ding Liren being played at the Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore.

The World Championship in Singapore has suddenly taken on the flavour of a psychological duel instead of a pure chess match. 

In the last few games, we have started to see a very clear trend where D. Gukesh is trying to provoke his opponent into a battle, is ready to decline draws and take risks. Ding Liren, on the other hand, seems to be pessimistic about his position, often going for the safest line on the first opportunity in the hope that Gukesh might overreach.

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Ding’s resilience against Gukesh defies preconceived odds at World Chess Championship 2024

D. Gukesh has shown more initiative and looked keener for intense battles, but the defending champion Ding Liren has so far been able to prove his peers wrong at World Chess Championship 2024.

The World Chess Championship match will consist of 14 classical games. Each game will adhere to a time control of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the remainder of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting from move 41.

The 2024 World Chess Championship match between D. Gukesh and Ding Liren consists of 14 games. The first player to score 7.5 points will be crowned the World Champion. If the match ends in a tie after all 14 games, a tiebreak will be held the following day to determine the winner.

Game 1 - November 25, 2024 - Ding Liren beat Gukesh

Game 2 - November 26, 2024 - Round ended in a draw

Game 3 - November 27, 2024 - Gukesh beat Ding Liren

Rest Day - November 28, 2024 - Thursday 

Game 4 - November 29, 2024 - Round ended in a draw

Game 5 - November 30, 2024 - Round ended in a draw

Game 6 - December 1, 2024 - Round ended in a draw

Rest Day - December 2, 2024 - Monday 

Game 7 - December 3, 2024 - Tuesday 

Game 8 - December 4, 2024 - Wednesday 

Game 9 - December 5, 2024 - Thursday 

Rest Day - December 6, 2024 - Friday 

Game 10 - December 7, 2024 - Saturday 

Game 11 - December 8, 2024 - Sunday 

Game 12 - December 9, 2024 - Monday 

Rest Day - December 10, 2024 - Tuesday 

Game 13 - December 11, 2024 - Wednesday 

Game 14 - December 12, 2024 - Thursday 

Tie-breaks (If needed) - December 13, 2024 - Wednesday

Where to watch the D. Gukesh vs Ding Liren World Chess Championship 2024 matches?

The World Chess Championship 2024 match between Gukesh and Ding will be streamed on FIDE social media handles (YouTube, Twitch), Chess.com social media handles (YouTube, Twitch) etc.

You can follow all the live action, commentary, moves and live chess board widgets on Sportstar’s daily match blog.

Hello and welcome to Sportstar’s live coverage of the World Chess Championship, where India’s D. Gukesh will take on reigning champion China’s Ding Liren in Game 7 at the Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore on Tuesday.

After six rounds, the World Championship series is tied of 3.0-3.0