Ding Liren hasn’t had an ice cream here, despite all the memes back home from China.
He may have been tempted to treat himself to ‘bing qi lin’ -- Chinese for ice cream, and thus the play on his name, ‘Ding Chillin’ -- on Tuesday night. He did everything to earn such a sweet delicacy.
His position had been delicate at several points of the game, and he was staring at defeat in Game 7 of the World chess championship. But, then, Ding is a World champion for a reason.
He showcased tremendous fighting spirit in the World title match against Ian Nepomniachtchi last year. His form may have deserted him since, and he may be ranked only 22nd in the world now, while Gukesh is fifth.
Sport, of course, is not just about numbers.
It is also much about resilience, a quality Ding showed in abundance. Yes, he could draw because of some inaccurate moves from Gukesh. But the defending champion had to find the correct moves – and he had to fight against the clock, too -- if he wanted to escape with a draw.
Houdini would have approved.
Gukesh opened by taking his knight to the ‘f3’ square, to which Ding responded by pushing the pawn in front of his queen by two squares. On the seventh move, the challenger sprang a surprise, bringing his rook to ‘e1’, and that got Ding to think for some 28 moves.
That was only the beginning of his trouble with the clock. There was a time when he had to make 15 moves in as many minutes. And he had just seconds to make his last move in the first-time control.
Gukesh did well to get a clearly better position, which he turned into a potentially winning one. But, he erred at some crucial junctures, allowing Ding to claw his way back.
Gukesh still was better when the game reached a rook-and-bishop against rook-and-knight ending. But on the 46th move, he made a costly mistake, with his bishop, when he should have played with his king.
There was, however, only one move that could have salvaged half a point for Ding, an ‘f’ pawn push. And he found it.
The game was eventually drawn in 72 moves, with just Ding’s king and Gukesh’s king and bishop remaining on the board. The longest game of the match so far lasted five-and-a-half hours.
Ding truly was chilling on this night.
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