Daily Times

Defending champion Ding Liren and his teenage challenger Gukesh Dommaraju of India remained even Saturday with only four games to go in their World Chess Championship match.

The score is deadlocked at five points each after 10 games in the 14-match series as both agreed to a draw.

Each player has won one game apiece, with Ding taking the opening match on November 25 and Guksesh coming back to defeat the champion in game three. The rest ended in draws.

Ding, 32, gained early advantage Saturday playing with the white pieces but the game soon fizzled to a draw as neither player made any inroads after 36 moves.

As the tournament neared the homestretch, both players admitted that each move will be crucial.

“Now, the cost of one game is higher than it was maybe … a few games before,” the 18-year-old Gukesh said after the match. “But my approach and my goal is still the same: to play good games in every single game.”

Ding said “there’s not so much room to make mistakes” anymore and every loss “will result in a very bad situation”. If both remain tied after 14 rounds, the match will move to a tie-breaker, which will be played on December 13. Ding beat Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi last year to become the world champion in Kazakhstan. At his age, Gukesh is the youngest player in history to compete in the World Championship and he is looking to surpass Garry Kasparov as the youngest undisputed world chess champion.