Dommaraju Gukesh had the edge for a large part of game 13 but superb defensive play from Ding Liren saw him keep the rampaging challenger at bay and force out a draw by repetition after 5 hours. The scores remain tied 6.5 - 6.5 ahead of the last classical game of the match on Thursday, where Ding will play with white.
Game 13 started with Gukesh moving e4, a standard opening to which Ding responded with the French defence. This played out for a while till Gukesh introduced a couple of variations that showed his opening prep in excellent light: and Ding seemed surprised. Taking his time there, he said he "was confused" at that point before settling into a mid-game where Gukesh forced the pace.
Bf4 in the mid-game, on move 22, was a stunning, unorthodox move that turned the momentum of the match again. It properly shocked Ding and had him scrambling to salvage his defence... after a quick series of moves, Ding was in real trouble with just one move possible to get out of an impossible-looking position. The move was Rf8 and by process of elimination he found it -- but it's the speed with which he found it that was so stunning.
Gukesh continued to press ahead, but once Ding had found his fortified position, it felt impossible to dislodge him. It was a bit of a scramble for Ding to make the first time control of two hours (40 moves) but once he made it, the inevitable draw came quite a few moves later.
Game 14 will start on Thursday, at 2.30 PM IST. Will we see a winner crowned tomorrow? We will be here with the live blog to take you through it all. Until then you can relive game 13 and all the action right here: