Indian challenger Grandmaster D Gukesh and defending champion Ding Liren of China will have one final go at one another to clinch the World Chess Championship on Thursday. The duo played out another draw on Wednesday in the penultimate game, and remain inseparable at 6.5 points each, still shy of one point in order to win the championship.
18-year-old Gukesh will have to climb a mountain if he is to defeat Ding Liren today as the latter is starting with white. The 32-year-old Liren had won the opening game, while Gukesh had emerged victorious in the third game to draw level.
The two Grandmasters then played seven consecutive draws before Gukesh broke the deadlock in the 11th game to take a 6-5 lead but Liren drew level in the 12th game by shocking the Indian.
But what happens if Thursday's encounter also ends in a draw? Is there a tie-breaker round?
World Chess Championship tiebreaker rule explained
World Chess Championship is a best-of-14 tournament played between two contestants. If Thursday's game also ends in a tie, the World Champion will be decided in a tie-breaker which will take place on Friday.
In the first phase of the tiebreaker, the duo will face off in a four-game mini-match playoff. Each player has just 15 minutes on the clock and will earn an increment of 10 seconds for every move.
But if this phase does not yield a winner, the duo will be asked to play a two-game playoff with both players having 10 minutes on the clock. They will earn an increment of five seconds for each move.
If the two contenders remain inseparable at the end of this phase, the tiebreaker will become a two-game playoff with a time control of three minutes per player with two-second increments per move. If they still remain at par, mini-matches time control of three minutes per player with two-second increments per move will go on until one player is defeated.
History awaits India's Gukesh
German chess master Emanuel Lasker, the world champion from 1894 to 1920, holds the record of keeping the crown for the longest period.
When Soviet great Garry Kasparov became the world champion for the first time in 1985, he was 22 years old. Kasparov's record of being the youngest-ever undisputed world champion remains intact to this day. Thus, if Gukesh manages to better Ding Liren and become the 18th World Chess Champion aged 18, he will script history!
(With inputs from PK Harish)
