D Gukesh vs Ding Liren Game 4 Highlights: Round 4 of World Chess Championship 2024 ends in a draw

That’s it from us in our coverage of Round 4 of the World Chess Championship battle between Ding Liren and D Gukesh, with the two playing out a draw on Friday to go 2-2 in the best-of-14 series.

Do join us tomorrow afternoon for Round 5, in which Gukesh will hope to take the lead for the first time in the ongoing Championship. Till then, goodbye!

Ding says he was surprised by Gukesh's Ne5, allowing f4 (but both players pointed out Nc4! is strong), and after b6 he decided it was time to settle for the draw#DingGukesh pic.twitter.com/3vooeogzpj

— chess24 (@chess24com) November 29, 2024

Some bit of movement with White King and Black Rook and finally after move 42 we have a draw. The scores are levelled 2-2 after Game 4 in World Chess Championship 2024.

Last few moves: 

39. Ke3 Rd5
40. Ke4 Rd4+
41. Ke3 Rd5
42. Ke4 Rd4+

This is so much fun now. After Liren plays Qc4, Gukesh goes black Qd6 to stop the white Queen from causing any damage. Liren responds with e4 as Gukesh goes Re5 but Liren captures Pawn on f5. Gukesh kills that pawn with Rxf5.

This is followed by Qxd5 and Rxd5, so both Queens are gone.

Next few moves: 

37. Kf3 Kg6
38. Ke4 Rd4+

Kh7 has been played by Gukesh, putting it into the bin and Liren has gone for white Qc4.

It looks like Gukesh wants to have some more fun. With Rd5 and f5, Gukesh has created a situation where it seems like he wants to play for a while and not force a draw immediately.

29. Qc2 Rd5
30. g3 f5

GM Judit Polgar has declared that there’s no chance for Gukesh or Liren to win from here unless someone makes a big mistake. The last move from Liren was Qc2 and Gukesh can play h5 that will be safe. This game should end in a draw in all probability. In any case, Gukesh is going to try to defend his Pawn on c5.

The Rooks are off the board! It’s even-steven at the moment but Gukesh would not mind this with black pieces.

Last four moves: 

25. h3 c5
26. Rxd8+ Rxd8
27. bxc5 bxc5
28. Rc1 Qe5

Gukeshh is currently not in his seat. He has taken a break. Liren also took a break but he is back.

Liren took white Knight on c3 with Gukesh’s Bishop on e4 but the Indian GM opted to move Rook to d8 followed by Gukesh capturing the Knight on e4. Of course, Gukesh used his Queen to capture that Knight. The latest move has been h3 by Liren. The Queen in the middle by Gukesh has given the 18-year-old a strong position as it’s currently protecting a lot of other pieces.

A lot has happened in the last 20 minutes with both players playing six moves and multiple Pawns and Bishops captures.

16. Nf3 Nxf3+
17. Bxf3 d4
18. Ne2 dxe3
19. dxe3 Be4
20. Rfd1 Qe7
21. Bxe4 Nxe4

The next moves were axb6 and axb6. So We are nearing a end it seems.

Two moves have been made in the meantime.

14. a4 Rc8
15. a5 b6

The pawn can be captured on b6 or a5 and if that happens a lot of action can happen.

Gukesh’s response to Qb3 is a Ne5 which obviously came after quite a lot of thinking. A nice defense has been built from b7 to d5 by Gukesh and also there are knights on e5 and g6.

Gukesh is still pondering upon what could be his next move after Liren went Qb3. The Indian GM has already lost over 40 minutes so far behind 12 moves.

As Liren plays Knight d4, Gukesh is forced to retreat his Bishop to h7 from d4. The Queen has now made a move for Liren. White Queen goes b3.

Liren chooses for pawn capture on d5 followed by a similar move from the challenger Gukesh. This could be a long battle as Liren isn’t settling for symmetry. This is the 11th move which is not part of the attached picture: 11. b4 c6

Short Castle by Gukesh! Will Liren go for the capture on d5? It looks a pretty good move in our opinion.

9. Nc3 O-O

Gukesh has brought the Knight back on d7 after c4 from Liren. It has been told by one of the commentators that the same moves were made from the black side by Anish Giri in a match against Wesley So. And also in one of the matches in 1978. Interesting!

After e6 by Gukesh opens up the diagonal line, Liren captures the black Bishop on f8 followed by Gukesh using his Knight to capture the black Bishop. Since then Liren has moved c4. The game is moving very quickly today.

Liren opts for short castling after Gukesh responds with Knight d7 in reply to an unusual white Bishop a 3 by the current world champion.

Ding Liren has played a Bishop a3 and this has come out of the blue. Gukesh will take some time here because it’s not a move that we see every day. This whole World Chess Championship has been quite unusual.

Moves so far:

1. Nf3 d5

2. e3 Nf6

3. b3 Bf5

4. Be2 h6

5. Ba3

Here’s the view of the live board in Game 4 after the first five moves. Meanwhile, Liren got up from his chair and the jacket is off.

1. Nf3 d5
2. e3 Nf6
3. b3

The ceremonial first moves have been made. Vishy Anand was also involved and now Liren starts with Nf3 followed by d5 from Gukesh. Liren goes for e3 on his second move.