It was such a wrong move that even Gukesh put his hand on his lips. Then he looked at the board, possibly wondering if his eyes were trying to deceive him. Was it a kidney? He covered his eyes briefly with his palm, the universal sign for disbelief.
The Indian leaned in for a closer look, trying to figure out if there was a trap somewhere. Games in the World Championship are not won or lost – it’s easy! Championship-deciding games are certainly not decided by one-move errors.
When it became clear that his opponent Ding Liren had indeed made a mistake on the board, Gukesh suddenly seemed very conscious of holding his breath. His time on the clock was one hour and six minutes, compared to his opponent’s nine minutes and forty-three seconds.
The Indian teenager looked away, and took a sip of water. Across the board, the world champion was impressed with what he did recently. A one-move error to surrender the game, the game and the crown.
“I was completely shocked when I realized I had made a mistake. His face told me that he was very happy and very excited. That’s when I realized I had made a mistake. It took me a while to realize it,’ said Ding at the press conference afterwards. “It wasn’t as dead as yesterday. He had a bishop on the board. He also had a rook, so it was more difficult. I could have done better, but considering my lucky escape in yesterday’s game, it is fair that I lost in the end. I have no No regrets.”
Ding’s predecessor, Magnus Carlsen, abdicated without removing a single pawn. In contrast, the Chinese champions fought tooth and nail to stay on the field for 14 games. And just when he seemed to have forced the matter into a tie-break where he was supposed to have the advantage, he blew it with a careless move: 55.Rf2.
Here’s what that careless rook return did: To move his rook from f4 to f2, Ding offered Gukesh for an exchange. Gukesh’s own rook stationed on b2 moved in and captured it. Ding will then recapture the piece with his king. There was no harm done.
mistake
But here it would be treacherous for Ding. His remaining bishop, the only piece that could do anything important on the board, stood by itself in the corner of a8. With the rooks off the board, Gukesh had to place his bishop on the diagonal where Ding had no choice but to trade bishops as well, as it was in a corner where Gukesh’s bishop had a way through.
Once the bishops have chased the rooks off the board, Ding will be left with only a pawn and a king. Meanwhile, Gukesh had two pawns and a king, which would lead the pawns to the finish line, where they would be promoted to queens. Checkmate was inevitable.
“When he played the rook on f2, I didn’t know (the board won). I was almost going to play the rook for b3. But when I realized it, it was probably the best moment of my life,” smiled an emotional Gukesh.
Earlier too, the World Chess Championship was decided by a single mistake of the board.
In 1985, Garry Kasparov was battling Anatoly Karpov to become the youngest world champion in history when the pair played their final match. The year before, they fought for more than five months, without anyone winning, before the match was finally cancelled.
This time, there were a fixed number of games. Kasparov was leading by one point against Karpov, who needed to win the final game with white pieces.
Karpov attacked all out in his first 20 moves until he finally got to the point where he had to make a big decision: he needed to choose whether to advance the pawn on the kingside.
He decided against it. Kasparov later said that his opponent’s moves gave him the confidence to stop defending and go on the attack himself.
A push that never happened in 1985 made the world the youngest ever world champion. Almost 40 years later, a Rook withdrawal has made the world even younger.
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