World Chess Championship 2024 Game 10: Gukesh plays out easy draw against Ding Liren, scores remain tied at 5-5

Indian challenger D Gukesh yet again proved equal to the task with defending champion Ding Liren of China as the 10th game of the World Chess Championship match between them ended in a draw without much excitement here on Saturday.

It was by far the easiest of the game with black pieces for Gukesh as the position played itself out of a London system game wherein Ding Liren took no risks and was also apparently happy with the drawn result.

Liren continued with his London system in the opening and came with a slight change early that left the pawn structure symmetrical. The tactic might have worked on another day but Gukesh for once decided not to press hard as black out of an equal position.

Gukesh, the younger ever challenger, had his task cut out and he passed all the tests with flying colours.

Before the start of the 10th game, Liren had three white games against Gukesh’s three but now it’s a level playing field with just four more games to go.

For Gukesh, the hardest decision was to go for a completely equal position on move 11 and even though the position had occurred a few times before in Grandmaster games, it did not look like either the Indian or Liren was aware of what had happened in those games.

It did not take long for the world to decide when Liren went for a series of exchanges, including the queen, that the game was heading towards a draw.

However, as per the contract, both players were still obliged to play 40 moves before agreeing to split the point.