What a start we’ve had to the World Championship match. Ding Liren was written off in some quarters — though at no point by D Gukesh or his team — but the doubters have been silenced emphatically. A solid win, the first time in 14 years a World Championship match has seen a result, sees Ding take a solid advantage early in his title defence.
Current score: Ding Liren 1 – 0 D Gukesh
Game 2 of the 14-game match starts 2.30 PM today
The reigning champion allowed Gukesh a fast start but slowly — and then rapidly — changed the tide of the match as he put the squeeze on in the latter half of the game. In the last thirty minutes of the first two hour time control, Ding took complete control and eased into a winning position soon into the next time control of half an hour.
Ding’s decision to play a variation of the French defence, in a bid to throw Gukesh’s opening preparation and that seemed to work at the end. Game 2 takes an important tone now, with the young Indian challenger in need of stopping Ding from building up a proper head of steam. Although he’d been in poor form for the past year, Ding looked close to his calm, collected, calculative best on Monday and he’ll be looking for a repeat today. In order to do that, Gukesh, who’ll play with black today, will need to get his opening defensive set up on point.
Can he really do it? We’ll find out soon with our live blog below, which will take you through the entire match from start to final handshake.
