World Chess Championship: Eighth game between India's D Gukesh and China's Ding Liren ends in draw

The eighth game of the World Chess Championship between D Gukesh from India and Ding Liren from China ended in a draw on Wednesday.

Both the players had an identical tally of four points each, 3.5 points left to win the championship. They made 51 moves in total. This was the sixth draw in the 14-round match, reported PTI.

China's Liren had won the opening game, whereas Gukesh, the youngest-ever challenger, won the third game.

Before the eighth round, the second, fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh games ended in draws. The game lasted over four hours.

In the $ 2.5 million World Chess Championship, six rounds are left out of a total of 14 rounds, where games will be played in faster time to determine the winner. The upcoming two games will be crucial for the championship.

“I would have taken the draw if I thought I was worse but I did not, I had to be very precise, I missed one of his resource. I am not very sure I think the position had more tricks," PTI quoted Gukesh.

“The position where I didn’t repeat, I didn’t think I was in much danger. I always thought with his weak king and my strong pawn on b3, I should have play. I thought maybe I might even have some chances. But okay, yeah, it was just a misjudgment of the position,” he added.

"My team they’re been doing great job, not only 'Gaju' (Grzegorz Gajewski), but other team members as well, we managed to surprise him in the openings, I would like to thank my team and hopefully more interesting ideas will come," Gukesh said.

However, Liren had to sacrifice a pawn, for which he said that it was a miscalculation.

“Today during the game I didn’t realise I was winning at some point,” PTI quoted the Chinese player.

In the seventh round, conducted on Tuesday, both players were at 3.5 points each, short of four points needed to win the championship. They made 72 moves in total.