DefenDING like a World Champion

Games that are both thrilling and perfectly played are rare. This phenomenon also occurs in other sports, but it is especially pronounced in chess.

The most exciting games are often shaped by inaccuracies and mistakes that cause the advantage to shift back and forth. Chaos is the most powerful catalyst of beauty.

The seventh game at the World Chess Championship belongs to this category. It was far from perfect. Kramnik will surely have some remarks about it. But what a formidable fight it was!

It all began with Gukesh's novelty as early as move 7, in a well-known position that has been played many times by the likes of Carlsen, Aronian, and Ding himself. White had more than half a dozen viable moves to choose from, but the Challenger opted for the seemingly dull 7.Rd1—a move that had never been tried before. What was his plan?

‘I am familiar with this position, but I had never seen this move before. I am surprised. But one thing is for sure: it has a deep idea behind', said Anna Muzychuk, acting as the ‘visiting Grandmaster' in the commentary studio during this game.

Everybody was surprised, including the World Champion, who again started consuming more time than reasonable.

The first thing he did was attempt to take his opponent out of preparation with 9…c5. I suspect Ding knew this wasn't the best move in the position (he later admitted to underestimating 10.d5), but it was likely a good practical decision.

The Champion was edging closer to equalizing the position, but the clock situation was becoming dire. By move 20, he had already used up more than an hour and a half, leaving just 26 minutes to make his remaining 20 moves before the time control.

In this critical moment, he doubled down and made his riskiest decision yet:

Black had a good and much safer play with the retreat 20…Qb8, keeping an eye on the d6 square and staying out of trouble. But instead, Ding played 20…Qa6, aiming at the a2 pawn.

That's looking for trouble. And trouble he got.

Capturing a ‘poisoned pawn' in the opening is already risky enough, but doing it with just minutes on the clock is almost suicidal. We often look at Ding as a fragile, hesitating, and vulnerable player, but he does make some bold decisions at key moments – like the famous Rg6 move in the tie-break against Nepo that made him World Champion.

Ding got to capture that pawn. But his Queen got trapped far away from the action, and Gukesh had plenty of options to play cat and mouse with his opponent. The challenger found a way to recover the material while destroying black's pawn structure in process.

The resulting endgame was the kind of position players like Carlsen, Karpov or Fischer dream of.

With the clock ticking, Ding showed once again his famous resilience. He defended well, and I would say Gukesh didn't find the best moves on several occasions.

Ding was holding the position. The game was heading towards a draw. But the drama wasn't over yet: with just seconds in the clock, Ding made a mistake on move 40, the last one before reaching the time control:

40…Ke5 allows White to capture Black's h-pawn, giving Gukesh a passed pawn on that file.

Like Sisyphus, Ding found himself back in misery, forced to defend yet again—this time from an even more desperate position.

However, Gukesh didn't shine in this phase. The general impression is that his endgame play has not yet reached World Champion level. And Ding certainly didn't make it easy for him. In fact, the World Champion produced some of his finest chess of the match here, employing an active defense that earned widespread praise from his peers.

‘It's hard to believe I managed to draw this game. I almost gave up,' said Ding at the press conference. Gukesh was visibly disappointed; it seemed he hadn't yet fully grasped how the victory had slipped away from him. ‘I missed a good chance. I will try not to repeat mistakes like these in the next games,' he said.

With this result, the match reaches its halfway point, tied at 3,5–3,5. And this is probably the most interesting stage in the World Championship. If I were you, I wouldn't miss the next few rounds!

Agadmator's Game 7 video recap