D Gukesh vs Ding Liren, World Chess Championship 2024 Game 5 Highlights: Gukesh, Ding play out second consecutive draw

A lot of people are surprised by the choice of exchange French from Gukesh. I think it’s part of his strategy. Whether this strategy suits Gukesh or not remains to be seen, but I trust Gukesh and his team completely! pic.twitter.com/5VKRB8VveP

— Srinath Narayanan (@srinathchess) November 30, 2024

Here’s a move-by-move recap of Game 5 of the World Chess Championship between Ding Liren and D Gukesh, which ended in a draw after 40 moves.

1. e4 e6
2. d4 d5ex
3. exd5 exd5
4. Nf3 Nf6
5. Bd3 c5
6. c3 c4
7. Bc2 Bd6
8. Qe2+ Qe7
9. Qxe7+ Kxe7
10. O-O Re8
11. Re1+ Kf8
12. Rxe8+ Kxe8
13. Bg5 Nbd7
14. Nbd2 h6
15. Bh4 Nh5
16. Re1+ Kf8
17. g4 Nf4
18. Bg3 Nb6
19. g5 hxg5
20. Nxg5 Bd7
21. Ngf3 Re8
22. Ne5 Bxe5
23. dxe5 Nd3
24. Bxd3 cxd3
25. f3 Nc4
26. Nxc4 dxc4
27. Re4 Bc6
28. Rd4 Bxf3
29. Kf2 Bc6
30. Rxc4 Rd8
31. Rd4 Rxd4
32. cxd4 Bd5
33. b3 Ke7
34. Ke3 Ke6
35. Kxd3 g6
36. Kc3 a6
37. Kd3 Kf5
38. Ke3 Ke6
39. Kd3 kf5
40. Ke3 Ke6

Both Gukesh and Ding had a bishop left, albeit on different squares, with a rook exchange in the 32nd move accelerating the two towards a draw.

Gukesh offers a rook exchange in the 31st move, which Ding promptly accepts, and the two contestants breeze through their next nine moves which are largely repetitive in nature.

Gukesh and Ding shake hands soon as they’re done with their 40th moves, with Game 5 ultimately lasting three hours. With the second consecutive stalemate and the third overall in the World Championship so far, Ding and Gukesh remain level on 2.5 points each!

Gukesh had moved his rook to d4, after which his Chinese opponent took his pawn on the f file with his light-squared bishop. The 18-year-old Indian responded by advancing his king to f2, and Ding moves his bishop back to c6.

Move 30 witnesses Gukesh capture Ding’s pawn on c4 with his rook and Ding move his rook further away from his king to d8.

While Gukesh decides to advance his rook to e4 to leave his king alone on the first rank. Ding responds by moving his light-squared bishop to c6, challenging the rook in the process.

Gukesh responds to losing his knight to Ding’s bishop on e5 with his d pawn. The Chinese GM moves his knight to d3. Gukesh takes it by moving his white bishop one square to his right, and loses it to the pawn on the c file.

After Gukesh retreats his knight, Ding decides to go for a rook-on-rook challenge by moving his piece to e8. Gukesh responds by moving his knight to e5 in order to block the path to his rook and also threaten his bishop on g7, which will also lead to a check.

Ding eliminates the threat with his black bishop, moving it one square to e5.

More than two hours since Game 5 got underway, reigning champion Ding’s chances of emerging victorious surpasses that of Gukesh. According to AI predictions, Ding has a 22.4 per cent chance of winning compared to 14.9 percent for Gukesh, with a 62.7 per cent chance of the game ending in a draw.

1. e4 e6
2. d4 d5ex
3. exd5 exd5
4. Nf3 Nf6
5. Bd3 c5
6. c3 c4
7. Bc2 Bd6
8. Qe2+ Qe7
9. Qxe7+ Kxe7
10. O-O Re8
11. Re1+ Kf8
12. Rxe8+ Kxe8
13. Bg5 Nbd7
14. Nbd2 h6
15. Bh4 Nh5
16. Re1+ Kf8
17. g4 Nf4
18. Bg3 Nb6
19. g5 hxg5
20. Nxg5

Gukesh’s response comes quickly enough, with the Indian continuing to challenge Ding’s knight by moving his bishop to g3.

How will the Chinese grandmaster respond to the move? He faces the threat of losing one of his knights to Gukesh’s black bishop in two out of three possible directions.

Gukesh has had a clear path to the black king at e8 for a while now ever since Ding captured his rook in the 12th move. The Indian GM moves his other rook to e1 after a 19-minute wait, forcing the reigning champion to move his king to his left in response.

We’re 15 moves into Game 5, with more than an hour having passed so far in the contest. Ding moves his knight to h5 in response to Gukesh’s black bishop retreat in the latest move of the game.

1 e4 e6
2 d4 d5
3 exd5 exd5
4 Nf3 Nf6
5 Bd3 c5
6 c3 c4
7 Bc2 Bd6
8 Qe2+ Qe7
9 Qxe7+ Kxe7
10 O-O Re8
11 Re1+ Kf8
12 Rxe8+ Kxe8
13 Bg5 Nbd7
14 Nbd2 h6
15 Bh4 Nh5

The Chinese GM stares at the board for more than half-an-hour before moving his h pawn in order to build some pressure on Gukesh’s black bishop, which the Indian moves to h4 in an instant.

Gukesh has been taking his time for his moves so far today, consuming 13 minutes for moving rook to e1 in his 11th move. That was followed by a three-minute wait before moving his knight forward in his 14th.

Meanwhile, here’s how things stand after 13 moves (image courtesy: Chess.com):

1 e4 e6
2 d4 d5
3 exd5 exd5
4 Nf3 Nf6
5 Bd3 c5
6 c3 c4
7 Bc2 Bd6
8 Qe2+ Qe7
9 Qxe7+ Kxe7
10 O-O Re8
11 Re1+ Kf8
12 Rxe8+ Kxe8
13 Bg5 Nbd7

1 e4 e6
2 d4 d5
3 exd5 exd5
4 f3 f6
5 d3 c5
6 c3 c4
7 c2 d6
8 Qe2+ Qe7
9 Qxe7+ Kxe7
10 O-O Re8

Ding responds with an offer for a queen exchange, which the Indian accepts.

Here are the moves so far in Game 5:

1 e4 e6
2 d4 d5
3 exd5 exd5
4 f3 f6
5 d3 c5
6 c3 c4
7 c2 d6

Former world champion and current world No 1 Magnus Carlsen makes his prediction for Game 5 on the Take Take Take app:

“Knowing what we know so far, don’t think it’s going to be boring. Gukesh is going to go for the throat again. He will probably outprepare Ding Liren and then Ding Liren will have to dig in as he has done twice and find some resources”

Here’s what reigning world champion Ding Liren said after holding D Gukesh to a stalemate in Game 4 of the World Championship on Friday:

“This round, I tried to play safe. It turns out I got a little bit of an advantage. The score is still balanced. There are more games to come. I had a rest day to recover from the tough loss. I am in a very good mood. It worked well, not so bad.”

Here’s how Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh reacted after being held to a draw by Ding Liren in Game 4 of the World Chess Championship on Friday:

“Towards the end, I had some chances to press better but with black this is all you can expect… I am just trying to make good moves.”

After D Gukesh bounced back in style with a victory in the third game on Wednesday, just before the first ‘Rest Day’ of the World Championship, reigning champion Ding Liren managed to put up a better fight and hold the Indian Grandmaster to a sedate draw that lasted 42 moves and ended with a rook and pawns endgame.

Move by move recap (Ding playing with white pieces):

1. Nf3 d5 2. e3N f6 3. b3 Bf5 4. Be2 h6 5. Ba3 Nbd7 6. O-O e6 7. Bxf8 Nxf8 8. c4 N8d7 9. Nc3 O-O 10. cxd5 exd5 11. b4 c6 12. Nd4 Bh7 13. Qb3 Ne5 14. a4 Rc8 15. a5 b6 16. Nf3 Nxf3+ 17. Bxf3 d4 18. Ne2 dxe3 19. dxe3 Be4 20. Rfd1 Qe7 21. Bxe4 Nxe4 22. axb6 axb6 23. Nc3 Rfd8 24. Nxe4 Qxe4 25. h3 c5 26. Rxd8+ Rxd8 27. bxc5 bxc5 28. Rc1 Qe5 29. Qc2 Rd5 30. g3 f5 31. Kg2 Kh7 32. Qc4 Qd6 33. e4 Re5 34. exf5 Rxf5 35. Qe4 Qd5 36. Qxd5 Rxd5 37. Kf3 Kg6 38. Ke4 Rd4+ 39. Ke3 Rd5 40. Ke4 Rd4+ 41. Ke3 Rd5 42. Ke4Rd4+.

Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Game 5 of the ongoing FIDE World Chess Championship in Singapore with reigning champion Ding Liren and his challenger D Gukesh set to lock horns less than 24 hours after playing out a sedate draw.

Can Ding regain the lead for the first time since winning the opening game? Or will Gukesh collect a second win in three games and move into the lead for the first time? Stay tuned to find out.