D Gukesh vs Ding Liren Highlights: Gukesh beats Liren in Round 3, wins his first match in World Chess Championship 2024

Here’s a final look at how the match progressed before Lirenn lost on time after 37 moves.

Gukesh is back! He won Game 3 of the World Championship after Ding flagged in a lost position: https://t.co/upN2wPZFg6 #DingGukesh pic.twitter.com/9B8LZpco6e

— lichess.org (@lichess) November 27, 2024

So the scores are levelled now. Both Gukesh and Liren have 1.5 points each after three matches in the 2024 World Chess Championship. Here’s how Gukesh won the match in 37 moves with white as Ding Liren ran out of time.

All the moves:

1. d4 Nf6
2. Nf3 d5
3. c4 e6
4. cxd5 exd5
5. Nc3 c6
6. Qc2 g6
7. h3 Bf5
8. Qb3 Qb6
9. g4 Qxb3
10. axb3 Bc2
11. Bf4 h5
12. Rg1 hxg4
13. hxg4 Nbd7
14. Nd2 Rg8
15. g5 Nh5
16. Bh2 Rh8
17. f3 Ng7
18. Bg3 Rh5
19. e4 dxe4
20. fxe4 Ne6
21. Rc2 Nxd4
22. Bf2 Bg7
23. Ne2 Nxb3
24. Rxc2 Nxd2
25. Kxd2 Ne5
26. Nd4 Rd8
27. Ke2 Rh2
28. Bg2 a6
29. b3 Rd7
30. Rcc1 Ke7
31. Rcd1 Ke8
32. Bg3 Rh5
33. Nf3 Nxf
34. Kxf3 Bd4
35. Rh1 Rxg5
36. Bh3 f5
37. Bf4 Rh5

Liren had less than 2 minutes left after move 31 so he was always up against it and while he made a couple of captures, he ran out of time. The world champion looks devastated but has no option but to move on. He gets up, collects his jacket, and leaves. Gukesh looks satisfied.

The last 10 moves:

32. Bg3 Rh5
33. Nf3 Nxf3
34. Kxf3 Bd4
35. Rh1 Rxg5
36. Bh3 f5

Final view of the board:

Gukesh wins! We will recap the end soon, but the breaking news right now is that Gukesh has defeated Ding Liren and won his first match in the World Chess Championship 2024. The scores are now levelled after three matches.

Liren has 1.50 minutes to reach 40 moves and get an extra 30 minutes of time. He is currently on move 31. This only means Liren will now be forced to play some moves that will come without much planning.

Move 31. Rcd1 Ke8

After Gukesh opts for Rcc1, Liren responds with ke7 and Hess doesn’t hide his opinion, going ahead and declaring that Ding opted for the “worst move” on the board.

“He (Gukesh) is going to set a trend. This opening is going to go not viral, but it’s going to become very very popular, I have a feeling.” – GM David Howell

Since Liren played Ne5, here are the next six moves including the white King of Gukesh taking e2 which the computer also approves.

26. Nd4 Rd8
27. Ke2 Rh2
28. Bg2 a6

Liren did not move from his chair for 4 hours and 7 minutes in Game 1. He won Game 1 which was his first chess win in 304 days.

*challenging* myself to beat this today 🪑 pic.twitter.com/1wFv5YuFKN

— Chess.com (@chesscom) November 27, 2024

A pawn capture for Liren on e4 with a black pawn followed by reverse capture by Gukesh through his pawn. Liren then takes his black Knight to e6. Rook moved to c1 by Gukesh. Liren then takes his black Knight to d4 to capture the pawn but Gukesh moves the Bishop to f2 which is in a direct diagonal line to the black Bishop.

Liren goes Bg7 followed by Ne2 for Gukesh.

Another capture for Liren as he takes pawn on b3 followed by white Rook capturing black bishop on c2.

Liren then captures the white Knight on d2 followed by the white King capturing the knight.

The latest move is Ne5 by Liren.

Liren captures pawn with dxe4 followed by Gukesh returning the favour with fxe4 and capturing Ding’s pawn. Liren now moves black Knigth to e6. His Bishop c2 is still stuck.

Liren looks exasperated. His Bishop is trapped on c2 now that Gukesh has played the brilliant move of e4 with his white pieces. Judit Polgar on air says black Bishop will not be “rescued now”.

From b7 to d5, Liren has created a great pawn defense, and the black King is currently surrounded by two knights and a bishop.

Knight f7 has been played by Liren who is holding black pieces followed by Bishop g3. Liren then moves Rook to h5. Gukesh on the clock now.

The computer says that the last move, Rh5 is a mistake.

The last few moves:

16. Bh2 Rh8
17. f3 Ng7
18. Bg3 Rh5

Quick moves have been made by both the players. Here are the moves in the last three attempts.

15. g5 Nh5
16. Bh2

Ding is looking more confident now. After Ding played Nbd7, Gukesh went Nd2, and Liren this time was quick to respond and within seconds went Rg8. It seems like Liren was trying to remember the pattern and is now in the knowledge of them. Gukes is on the cock now. He still has over a 40-minute advantage over the Chinese GM.

It’s Nbd7 as was predicted by the commentators. Liren finally makes a move and some of the experts are guessing that Liren knew the move all this time but decided to pretend that he has run out of ideas. Gukesh is in thinking mode now.

Liren is still thinking. How long has it been? Maybe over 20 minutes. The last move from Gukesh was capturing a pawn on g4. The commentators are saying that Kd7 can be an option for Liren but he is not sure if that is the best option, so he keeps thinking. This is the tough part of a chess game. You don’t always know the repercussions of our move.

It has been quite a while since Liren played his last move after Gukesh captured his pawn on g4. Gukesh has so far taken around 4 minutes for the same number of moves (13) while Liren has taken 53 minutes and more

.

A pawn capture for both the chess GMs on g4. The game is moving at neck-break pace from Gukesh and it’s difficult to understand what Liren is planning as his defense looks very porous.

Here are the last few moves and also how the pawns were captured:

10. axb3 Bc2
11. Bf4 h5
12. Rg1 hxg4
13. hxg4

Qb3 from Gukesh results in Liren playing a Qb6 followed by the Indian GM going g4. It’s clear this match will have a result and Liren is currently busy thinking. He has been taken by surprise by an attacking Gukesh.

Liren goes for the kill and captures Gukesh’s white Queen on b3. Gukesh responds swiftly by taking the black queen with b3 followed by Bc2 from Liren. Currently, the Chinese GM is in think mode after Gukesh’s last move of Bf4.

Here’s a view of the live board for now. After the four moves, the following moves have played.

5. Nc3 c6
6. Qc2

The match is underway. Here are the first moves by Gukesh (white pieces) and Liren.

1. d4 Nf6
2. Nf3 d5
3. c4 e6
4. cxd5 exd5

Magnus Carlsen was very brutal in his assessment of Gukesh’s defeat in Game 1 against Ding Liren. “This was a very good performance from Ding. His best performance in a long time. Gukesh didn’t make a single good decision the whole game. Everything was wrong,” Carlsen said on Take Take Take app.

In Game 1, Liren started slowly while Gukes made a blistering start but slowly Ding grew into the match and cleared the defense of the Indian GM.

While we wait for Game 3, here’s a look at the respective chairs that Gukesh and Liren are using in the World Chess Championship 2024. Gukesh has opted for a big gaming chair while Liren is comfortable with a normal office chair.

Game 3 of the FIDE World Championship Match, presented by Google, begins soon! 🔥 #DingGukesh

◽️White: Gukesh D 🇮🇳
◾️Black: Ding Liren 🇨🇳

Watch the live broadcast 👇https://t.co/c5OeTsnjN5 pic.twitter.com/NtjCmHMTwW

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) November 27, 2024