Ding hits back with positional masterclass, levels match 6-6

BENGALURU: On the night of his crushing Game 11 loss to D Gukesh, Ding Liren's Hungarian second Richard Rapport sent him a file titled 'strike back'. Ding made the words come alive on the board in Game 12, on Monday.

- Susan Ninan

A day after the reigning world champion crumbled, blundered, lost and fell behind in the match, he played a flawless game to equalise the World Championship score 6-6, ahead of the final two classical games.

At this point, two questions remain a mystery - where this World Championship is headed and which version of Ding will show up for the remaining two games. Both players will have one game each with the White pieces. Tuesday is a rest day.

Ding, playing White, opened with 1.c4 in Game 12, and Gukesh seemed to switch up his opening and slid his king's pawn by one square (1.e6) instead of two (1.e5). The Indian went for a slightly more ambitious set up with Black putting a pawn on d4 as early as move 4. Ding played a couple of thoughtful moves like 10...Re1 and 12...h3 and the prophylactic 13...Kh2 that improved White's position bit by bit. Gukesh seemed to dither, unsure of a concrete plan to improve his pieces and to prevent White from breaking open the centre.