Grandmaster D Gukesh confident of Rs 1.69 crore despite World Chess Championship 2024 still ongoing

The 2024 World Chess Championship is still underway, but Indian grandmaster D. Gukesh is guaranteed a huge sum with his first victory in the third round of the 14-match classical tournament over Ding Liren. With a maximum of 11 games left, the score is 1.5-1.5. This happened after Liren won the first match and the second game ended in a draw. Gukesh won the third game. According to the prize money set for winning the match, Gukesh will receive Rs 1.69 crore – an amount that Liren was also convinced of after winning the first round.

With nerves no longer bothering him, Gukesh will maintain a psychological edge against slightly shaken defending champion Liren when they resume an intriguing battle for the World Championship crown in the fourth round in Singapore on Friday.

Gukesh clearly showed better preparation, but Liren’s calculations failed in the third game. The match began with Gukesh facing the Chinese in the French defense with the white pieces, and his initial progress gave the Indian a huge time advantage, which he held until the end.

The youngster lost the first match after playing poorly in a difficult middlegame, but could take heart from the fact that his preparation had gone well.

In the second game, which was his first game with White, Liren chose a solid variation of the Italian opening, and Gukesh easily managed to equalize the score in the opening itself.

The game ended in just 23 moves with repetition, earning Gukesh a lot of respect for his flawless play with a somewhat disadvantageous color.

Approaching the third game before the first day of rest, Gukesh decided to give it his all, and his opening choice again forced Liren to spend more than half the allotted time on the first 14 moves themselves.

The Chinese later missed an easy way to equalize on his 18th move, but that was largely due to initial pressure from the Indian.

At this level of points, it is unlikely that Liren will go all out in the next game. Instead, a more cautious approach is expected as the Chinese champion hopes his skills will carry over into crunch moments and avoid repeating previous mistakes.

(with PTI inputs)