D Gukesh will get his last two opportunities to become the 18th world champion at 18 years in Singapore. First, via the 14th and last classical game against reigning champion Ding Liren on Thursday. And if it doesn't happen, he gets a chance to disprove the notion that the Chinese is a better rapid player in tiebreak games on Friday.
But before all that, what if the 32-year-old Ding wins with the white pieces and seals the deal on Thursday itself?
Understandably, the Indian fans don't want this kind of heartbreak. But you never know. Ding has managed to keep that kind of intrigue.
Gukesh and Ding have set up this finale after an exciting five-hour 68-move draw in the 13th game on Wednesday. The Indian challenger, world No. 5, pushed hard with white pieces. But the defending world champion, world No. 17 in live rating, was up to the task to force a draw and kept the match level at 6.5 points apiece.
Both players are in the same situation for the last game: must-draw to survive and must-win to clinch the title without tiebreaks. And survival of the coolest being the well-accepted theme in such situations.
Gukesh allowed Ding to go for French Defense for the third time in the match. Ding had won the opening game and drawn the fifth playing e6 as the black's first move though the variations were different.
However, Gukesh's team again came up with a novelty (8.Be3) and surprised Ding. But the move of the day belonged to Ding's rook (31...Rf8) allowing the triple fork by knight on queen, rook and bishop. Ding chased the rival queen with rook and queen on successive moves and then moved his king to h8 against check. Any other move in this phase would have been curtains for Ding.
Though Gukesh dared not to hide his king on h2 but brought it out to f2, queens were exchanged 10 moves later, ending all the remote chances of a victory. And though Gukesh had an extra pawn (3 vs 2) in the rook endgame, the Chinese stalwart was not going to spoil the great work he had done earlier.
In a tense game, Ding again displayed his virtuosity to come up with precise defense nearing the time control and needing to make 15 moves in 15 minutes after a sub-par 8... Nb6 using 40 minutes.