Ding Liren escapes after blunder in wild 72-move draw with Gukesh D in Game 7

Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju came dangerously close to scoring a decisive result in Tuesday’s seventh game of his world championship match against Ding Liren only to allow his opponent off the hook, leaving the best-of-14-games match no closer to resolution in a 3½-all deadlock.

“The score is fine,” Gukesh said after the players settled for a fourth successive draw in the match at Resorts World Sentosa. “Obviously, today was a missed chance. That is a bit of a disappointment, but he also missed some chances earlier in the match. So, I think it’s fair that we are here. The second half will be, of course, crucial.”

Gukesh, playing with the white pieces, surprised everyone by opening with 1 Nf3, then doubled down with a near-novelty (7 Re1) that steered the Reti into a Neo-Grünfeld Defense and prompted the champion to spent more then 28 minutes on his response. Early middlegame exchanges led to an imbalanced pawn structure, with Gukesh pressing on the queenside and Ding seeking counterplay.

Time pressure continued to mount on the 32-year-old from Zhejiang province, who fell more than an hour behind on the clock. The crucial moment occurred with Ding down to seven seconds, when he opted for the blunder 40...Ke5? instead of 40...Nc8! to reach the first time control, getting an extra 30 minutes while suddenly facing a losing position.

But Ding was able to gradually equalize with highly accurate play, aided by the Gukesh mistake (46 Bd4? instead of Be2), and salvage an improbable draw after 5hr 22min.

Ding entered 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 best-of-14-games match.

But he sprang a major surprise in the opening game

by winning as black

The fifth-ranked Gukesh, already the youngest ever world title challenger in the competition’s 138-year history, can shatter the record for youngest ever undisputed world champion held by Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he dethroned Anatoly Karpov in their 1985 rematch in Moscow.

“It’s never pleasant to miss a winning position,” Gukesh said. “But I’m happy about the fact that I outplayed my opponent quite easily in the opening.”

The $2.5m showdown resumes on Wednesday with Ding playing as white in Game 8. Whoever reaches seven and a half points first will be declared the champion at Resorts World Sentosa, an island resort off Singapore’s southern coast.