D Gukesh joined the select company of Vishy Anand, Magnus Carlsen and Ding Liren when he equalised in the undisputed World Championship match on Wednesday, after suffering a defeat in the first decisive game of the Matchplay series. Before Gukesh, only these three had levelled the score 1-1 in the title matches since the title was united in 2006.
Garry Kasparov had lost the ninth game to Anand in the 1995 match but bounced back in the next game. But that was a 20-game match with greater possibility of twists and turns. Anand himself struck back immediately after losing to Veselin Topalov (2010), Boris Gelfand (2012) and Magnus Carlsen (2014). The bounce back carries greater value now because the series is limited to just 12 or 14 games. Prior to 2000, the matches were played over at least 20 games.
