Ding Liren and Gukesh D all square in world title match after 42-move draw in Game 4

Ding Liren’s world championship match with Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju continued on Friday with a quiet 42-minute draw in the fourth game of their $2. 5m meeting in Singapore. The 32-year-old reigning champion from Zhejiang province, playing with the white pieces for the second time, caused the challenger some initial discomfort by switching to the offbeat Zukertort Opening (1 Nf3) and continuing the opening surprise with 5 Ba3. But Gukesh steered the contest into a tense and balanced middlegame, neutralizing the threats effortlessly before making a draw by repetition immediately after the first time control. Ding came into the first defense of his world championship having gone 28 classical games without a win, a dreadful run of form that saw him drop to 23rd in the world rankings and prompted the oddsmakers to install him as roughly a 3-1 longshot in the match. But he sprang a major surprise in Monday’s first gameby winning as black, dramatically ending the 304-day winless streak. Game 2 on Tuesdaywas a tame 23-move draw, before Gukeshstruck back on Wednesdaywith a win in Game 3. An 18-year-old native of Chennai, the fifth-ranked Gukesh can shatter the record for youngest ever undisputed world champion held by Kasparov, who was 22 when he dethroned Anatoly Karpov in their 1985 rematch in Moscow. The match resumes on Saturday with Gukesh playing as white in Game 5. Whoever reaches seven and a half points first will be declared the champion in the world title encounter at the Equarius Hotel at the Resorts World Sentosa. Full report to follow.