Gukesh contemplates his next move against Ding Liren in game 5 of the World Chess Championship in Singapore. (PHOTO: FIDE/Eng Chin An)
After a battling 72-move draw between Ding Liren and Gukesh in Game 7 of the world chess championship on Tuesday, former world champion Magnus Carlsen said he was in awe of the opening ideas that Gukesh and his team found to surprise the world champion.
Game 7 was the longest match of this year’s world chess championship lasting five hours and 30 minutes.
“This was a fantastic game. Really couldn’t have asked for more. Best game of the match so far. One that really thrilled everybody,” Carlsen said on the Take Take Take app. “There was a fascinating idea from Gukesh in the opening and almost entirely new concept. Then he played a really good game until a certain point. Ding started fighting back and we got a fantastic back-and-forth battle. Ding found a lot resources.”
Carlsen heaped praise on the opening used by Gukesh, crediting it to his trainer Gregorz Gajewski, who’s known for his opening ideas. Gukesh’s 7.Re1 was a move that caught the Chinese grandmaster off guard. He burnt up 28 minutes to play his reply (7…dxc4, where Ding picked off an undefended pawn from Gukesh).
“We saw a tremendous surprise found by the Gukesh camp. It was really quite impressive. We don’t see these completely new ideas that often in a world championship match. Usually the ideas that you find are tweaks to ideas that are really known,” said Magnus Carlsen.
“It was very well suited to the match situation and Ding’s temperament. We all expected Gukesh to go for e4. But instead he finds something fresh in an entirely new direction. It was fascinating to see,” added Magnus Carlsen. “You don’t play this kind of opening if you’re not highly ambitious with white pieces. Even though they must have analysed to the point where they knew this was safe to play with white, this takes guts to use in this situation with the match tied. Just to give up a pawn and know that you’re not getting it back.”
Magnus Carlsen had said after Game 5 that he had not been impressed by Gukesh so far in the match. But that evaluation seems to have changed somewhat,
“I was really impressed with how Gukesh played,” Magnus Carlsen said after the drawn game 7. “The way Ding saved the draw was really immaculate. Gukesh had some weak moments today. Not hating on Gukesh. We just have really high expectations off him based on what he’s done for a year.”
Asked who has impressed him the most after seven games, Carlsen said: “Ding. Partly because we did not have a lot of expectations.”
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