The World Chess Championship (WCC) stands at a tantalizing juncture. A series of seven consecutive draws in the middle games between world champion Diren Ling of China and his Indian challenger D Gukesh, may have lulled the casual observer into thinking that this duel was seriously lacking in excitement and aggression. But the experts have been continuously pointing out over the past fortnight that there is much that lies beneath.
While they have conceded that this is arguably the most human of all title matches in the classical format, there still lurks the unknown, though the pattern does point out to Ding drawing Gukesh towards his favoured tiebreaks ‘endgame’.
