 "Gukesh needs to adjust time management and mindset, says chess legend Susan Polgar after loss to Ding Liren")
Chess legend Susan Polgar has adviced India’s D Gukesh against panicking after his defeat in the first match of the World Chess Champions 2024 to reigning world champion Ding Liren on Monday at the Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore. the 18-year-old Gukesh, who is the youngest challenger ever for the world chess title, was the favourite going into the World Chess Championship against an out-of-form Liren, who had not won a classical game since January 2024, but the 32-year-old Chinese GM sprung a surprise by winning the first game in the 14-game series and taking a 1-0 lead .
While there are 13 more matches to go in the Championship, a shock loss at the start could potentially derail Gukesh’s campaign who doesn’t have much experience of playing in the biggest tournament. In such a scenario, the former Women’s World Chess Champion, Polgar, has adviced Gukesh against pressing the panic button. The legendary Hungarian-American chess grandmaster said there’s still a long way to go in the Championship but Gukesh should work on his “time management and mindset.”
“Game over! Ding scored his first classical game win in a long time! Gukesh just has to regroup and get the momentum back in game 2. Ding never lead in his previous World Championship match until the end. Gukesh has to adjust his time management and mindset. Still a long match. Not time to panic,” Susan Polgar wrote on her Instagram account.
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More ShortsGukesh vs Ding Round 1 summary
In an unexpected turn of events, Ding Liren defeated Gukesh D with the black pieces in the first game. Despite spending a lot of time at the beginning of the game, the Chinese Grandmaster found a way to nullify his opponent’s opening initiative and take advantage of the many pawn weaknesses to break through with a decisive middlegame counterattack.
Although it seemed that Ding Liren was on the right track, by playing 27…fxe6 instead of the solid 27…Bxe6 he allowed Gukesh a chance to get off the hook. However, the 18-year-old Indian mistakenly chose 30.Qc2 instead of the principal 30.Bc5, which would have given him enormous tactical compensation and a real chance to muddy the waters.
In the postgame press conference, Ding Liren recognized that he had been a bit lucky as he had missed two tactics that, fortunately for him, didn’t work for his opponent. For his part, Gukesh admitted that he was quite nervous before the game, and although he was able to calm down, he understood that his opponent had played very well.
For the first time since the 2010 Anand vs Topalov match, a decisive result has been certified in the first game. On that occasion, Indian superstar Vishy Anand also lost to Veselin Topalov but went on to claim the title.
The second game of the match will take place on Tuesday, 26th November at 5 PM local time in Singapore (2.30 PM IST in India).
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