Ding Liren was unable to stretch his World Chess Championship lead as Recreation 2 towards Gukesh Dommaraju petered out to a 23-move attract Singapore.
Following victory in Recreation 1 for Ding, the defending champion, the scores now sit at Ding 1.5-0.5 Gukesh with as much as 12 classical video games remaining.
Gukesh, enjoying Black, supplied stiff defence and declared himself pleased getting off the mark with the draw, which was settled after round three hours. “This early, with Black, was nowhere near a must-win,” the 18-year-old challenger mentioned. “I used to be by no means going to do something silly.”
Ding was equally content material with the end result, suggesting he had felt out of kinds. “I used to be feeling a little bit up and down,” he mentioned. “I used to be barely worse within the center sport. I assumed I had misplayed.” The Chinese language participant, presently down at No 23 within the reside Fide rankings, briefly held the sting on the board, having performed his first 10 strikes quickly, however didn’t appear intent to push for victory.
Gukesh performs as White in Wednesday’s Recreation 3 and seems content material with the state of play. “At this time was a very good day – hopefully we’ll have many extra days coming,” the world No 5 from India mentioned.
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