India’s Gukesh lost game 1 of the World Chess Championship against world champions Ding Liren after a 42-move roller-coaster that broke against tradition of tepid draws in the first game of the World Championship.
The 18-year-old Gukesh held the upper hand in the contest, forcing Ding Liren into long moments of thought. But eventually, Ding surged back to hand Gukesh a bruising defeat.
Top players had sympathy for Gukesh and said that the 18-year-old should not fuss too much about the defeat.
Gukesh reacts after realising that a resignation is inevitable in the first game of the World Chess Championship against Ding Liren. (Photo FIDE Flickr via Eng Chin An)
“Game over! Ding scored his first classical game win in a long time! Gukesh just has to regroup and get the momentum back in game 2.Ding never lead in his previous World Championship match until the end. Gukesh has to adjust his time management and mindset. Still a long match. Not time to panic,” legendary player Susan Polgar posted on her Instagram account.
Gukesh will take on Ding Liren in game 2 of the World Chess Championship on Tuesday after losing game 1.
Ding Liren shows his class
Many top players were amazed by how well Ding Liren had played in the game, belying expectations from the rest of the chess world which had said that he was the underdog.
“Frankly, I have nothing to say other than that I am speechless. I tip my hat to Ding because frankly like most of the other pundits I really did not see Ding coming up firing like this and winning the first game. On top of that, it was a game where he shows great class!” said Hikaru Nakamura.
The American GM said that what had worked for Ding Liren was probably that he was playing on intuition.
“Once he started moving pieces quickly, he starts playing all these moves very quickly and confidently. It felt to me that something just shifted in his mind. He wasn’t spending so much time thinking and was just moving on intuition. He was able to forget what had happened and go with the flow and show why he is such a strong player,” said Nakamura.
