Mark Hallam 
Gukesh D. beat defending world chess champion Ding Liren in a frantic time scramble in Singapore, taking the lead 11 games into their 14-game match to crown a new champion.
The 18-year-old rising star from India and China’s top player had been deadlocked during a series of seven consecutive draws heading into Sunday’s game.
Taking the lead, particularly so late in the contest, could prove decisive for Gukesh. Ding will be forced to take considerable risks in the remaining three games, as he must win one of them to stay alive.
Time pressure the theme throughout
Both players looked uncomfortable within the first 10 moves on Sunday. This is unusual because top players very often play memorised and pre-prepared series of moves early in games.
Players have a total of 2 hours each to make their first 40 moves.
Ding, playing with black, had burned more than an hour of his time within the first half dozen moves, falling far behind Gukesh on the clock.
But a few moves later, when Ding found a solid defensive idea, Gukesh took almost exactly an hour thinking about how best to respond in a single position.
Ding blunders with just minutes left on the clock
Having used well over half their time for one quarter of their moves in the opening phase, time pressure tortured both players for the remainder of the game.
On move 28, with just seven minutes left to make another dozen moves and under pressure from five of Gukesh’s pieces coordinating to bully a weak pawn, Ding blundered.
He tried to move his queen out of the line of fire, but opened up a chance for Gukesh to claim a decisive material advantage.
Gukesh had clearly seen this opportunity, playing the crushing move almost instantly. Ding thought for just a few seconds after seeing the move on the board and then resigned the game.
How does the match stand?
Gukesh’s second win of the match with white means he leads 6-5 with just three games to go. Players win half a point each for a draw, or a full point for a win.
Three classical long time-control games remain for Ding to try to force a tie-break made up of a series of faster time-control games. He must win one of the remaining games, without losing, to do so.
Ding, who has struggled since claiming the world championship title in April 2023, had shocked observers by winning the opening game of the match, before Gukesh leveled the scores in game 3.
But the seven draws since show how difficult it can be to win a top-tier chess game against world class opponents. Ding will now have to take more risks in search of the decisive result he needs, which is just as likely to hurt him as to help him.
Sunday’s game in Singapore game could prove the decisive one for the youngest ever challenger for the title of FIDE World Chess Champion.
This article first appeared on DW.