Defending world champion GM Ding Liren on Wednesday, December 11, held his 18-year-old challenger GM Gukesh Dommaraju to a draw at the Resort World Sentosa in Singapore, leaving the series tied at 6.5-6.5 ahead of the last round on Thursday.

The World Chess Championship between Gukesh and Ding has been a nail-biting contest – both players tying with two wins each and nine draws, after 13 intense games.

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On Wednesday, Game 13 commenced 1. e4 e6, 2. d4 d5, 3. Nc3 Nf6, 4. e5 Nfd7, 5. Nce2 c5, and swung into the French defense, advance variation. Playing with white, Gukesh who never left the board for the first two hours played so well and tried everything to squeeze out a win but the Chinese GM brought out his best defensive play.

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The defending world champion survived both time trouble and Gukesh&039;s advantage, found amazing defense and, after the 40th move, the position was equal.

At some point in the game, five-time world champion and FIDE Vice President GM Vishy Anand proclaimed "At this point, there is about 60% chance that the match will go to the tie-breaks”.

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If the 18-year-old from Chennai beats Ding, after 14 classical games, he will become not just the 18th World Champion but also the youngest in history, breaking the record set by Garry Kasparov in 1985.

Ding and his challenger are facing each other in a 14-game classical chess match.

The player who scores 7.5 points or more wins the match, picking up the better part of the $2.5 million total prize fund. If the score is equal after 14 games, the winner is decided by a tiebreak.

Ding will have the white pieces for one last time on Thursday.