Chess - The 2024 World Championship (Game 12 Review)

GM Ding Liren's Spassky spirit strikes back as Game 12 reinforces his improvisation that became intellectual just out of nowhere, except, that Ding pictured this maybe 20 moves ahead of time!

This is the 180 that Ding needed after Game 11 (Not you, 960!). A remarkable note here is that this is the first time Ding commands the white pieces and converts his play into a win against challenger GM Gukesh D, not just in this championship, but in their history of games.

Spectator GM Anish Giri hinted that with Ding's white army win, whether or not last game's loss was what he needed to push forward (Seemingly reductive considering his previous comeback against GM Ian Nepomniachtchi), could make him the current favorite to win this championship. GM Peter Leko while holding his winning position in high regard, wondered whether he needed to go behind the score to show his skill.

The notation I discuss below belongs solely to Game 12 of the World Championship that recently concluded.

Ding made a nice enough comeback from circumstances where he was hard pressed on time, here, with the fact that he showed up back at his seat to unleash 16. Rad1 and storm away!

I now find it hard to choose my favorite game between 1 and 12. Gukesh's wins with 3 and 11 are great, but come partly by Ding's misaligned pieces.

At some point during Ding's advantage, one tweet said,

"Dommaraju, I've come to bargain!"

Chess world aside, as a Marvel fan, this had me cracked in laughter.

What a double wow with the Marvel references that Ding's review of the game on the computer went, "Aw, snap."

For all things in context, do mention Chess before saying "Endgame."

Ding should be fine to draw 2 more games to advance to tiebreaks with his experience. Gukesh and team are most expected to push parameters with two more impending spectacles of collision. I am still open to the possibility of Gukesh pulling so much as a win and a draw. If it does prove to be Gukesh's game, it would be great to see him win entirely by intellect rather than with Ding slipping up on some moves. Gukesh already played a couple of openings where Ding seemed unhappy with the first bunch of moves, so more power to him all the same.

As of Game 12, that's Ding Chilling and Refilling for you!