Gukesh claws back to draw with champ Liren

China’s Ding Liren (right) makes his move against India’s D Gukesh during Rd 1 of the World Chess C’ship in Singapore on Monday. Pic/AFP

India's D Gukesh bounced back to draw a largely uneventful second game against defending champion Ding Liren of China in the World Chess Championship here on Tuesday.

Playing with black pieces, Gukesh made a comeback of sorts, having lost to Liren in the opener of the 14-game showdown, on Monday. It was a good recovery by Gukesh as Liren could do very little with his white pieces and had to share the point "Draw with black in the world championship match is always nice and it's too early, we still have a long match," the Chennai-based GM said in the post-game press conference.

"After I was surprised in the opening, I reacted pretty decently, and I didn't give him any chances. It was a solid game with black, which is nice," he added. If Monday was the day when nothing he did worked according to plan, Tuesday changed everything for Gukesh as he started well.

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Liren did not press at all while Gukesh just followed the basics as the game ended in a draw via repetition soon after black had completed the 23rd turn. It was one of the quietest variations in the Italian opening as Liren probably didn't want to rush it, having grabbed a full point in the first game.

Liren, 32, said he was happy with his performance: "In the first game, I played something new in the opening, it requires a lot of memory. It will be a big fight tomorrow. He's a point down and will have white pieces. I'm ready for a fight."

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