Ding Liren and Gukesh Dommaraju's world championship match has reached a crucial stage. After Thursday's ninth game ended in a sixth successive draw after 54 moves and 3 hours 56 minutes, the $2.5m contest remains deadlocked at 4½-4½ with five games still to play.

The Intense Battle for the World Championship

Game Dynamics and Surprises

In this high-stakes match, both Ding Liren and Gukesh Dommaraju have shown their mettle. The 18-year-old challenger from Chennai, playing as white, chose the popular Catalan opening and then sprung the first surprise with 10 Bc3, a near-novelty at this level. This move prompted Ding to spend nearly 20 minutes considering his response. However, the champion was able to comfortably neutralize the initiative and clear the queenside tension in the middlegame. The draw seemed inevitable as the queens and a pair of rooks came off the board in a rapid furry (25 Qxc5 Qxb6 26 Qxb6 Raxb6 27 Rc6 Rxc6 28 Bxc6). Even though Gukesh toiled on for more than another hour before settling for the half-point with only the kings left on the board, it was a testament to the precision of both players.

Ding's Form and Surge

Ding entered the scheduled three-week match with a 28-game classical winless streak, dropping to 23rd in the world rankings. This led the oddsmakers to price him as a roughly 3-1 underdog. But in Game 1, he sprang a major surprise by winning as black, ending his 304-day winless streak and delivering the opening salvo in a contest of mounting intensity. Game 2 was a 23-move draw, followed by Gukesh's win in Game 3. The fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, and eighth games were each peaceful results. So far, it has been a very interesting match with both players having missed some chances but showing great fighting spirit and entertaining chess.

Upcoming Resumption and Tiebreak Possibilities

The competition resumes on Saturday with Ding marshaling the white pieces in Game 9 following Friday's rest day. Whoever reaches seven and a half points first will be declared the champion at Resorts World Sentosa, an island resort off Singapore's southern coast. If the score remains equal after 14 contests, a series of tiebreak games with faster time controls will be played. This is how Ding won the title last year over Russia's Ian Nepomniachtchi. Although Ding has been regarded as the underdog due to his unremarkable form, he would go off as a slight favorite if the match was decided in rapid or blitz games. However, he knows that the draw streak could be broken at any point, and it's still too early to think about tiebreaks.