DRAMA IN THE FINAL GAME! 55.- Rf2? was the blunder, but I want to focus on 53.- Ba8?!, that is not losing itself although limits the white bishop to the h1-a8 diagonal only. Once the fatal trade of rooks were made, 56.- ..., Bd5 forced the trade of bishops and the KPPvKP winning endgame. The bishop on a8 reminds me to the 'single corner' at English draughts (squares 4 and 29), where the man or king only has one move (to 8 or 25) and the other side can win by opposition ('to have the move') in a 1 vs. 1 endgame and trap the opponent's piece; while the 'double corner' (squares 1 and 5, or 28 and 32) is safe and you can swap between these two squares and not being forced to move out of it.
In other words, coming back to chess: please imagine 53.- Bc6 instead of 53.- Ba8?! and the same moves from then: 53.- ..., Kf6; 54.- Rf4, Ke5. Then, 55.- Rf2 is not losing because if 55.- ..., Rxf2; 56.- Kxf2; Bd5 and white can avoid the trade of bishops just moving onto the a4-e8 diagonal because it is not limited to a single diagonal. Ding wanted a simpler endgame (less wood OTB) like there was not a tomorrow, but rushed and bit the dust... I mean, lost. It is true that he won at unexpected moments: in the first game playing black and just after his second loss with few games remaining. I read a random comment elsewhere saying something like 'Irony: Ding won the first game with black to start leading and lost the match with white in the last game'. So true, so painful for him.
Full stream of the last game of the WCC 2024:
Game 14 Stream | FIDE World Championship Match 2024 | Ding Liren vs Gukesh D
Stream just before 53.- Ba8?!:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WP1X_gOYAw&t=14970s
Ding resigned about six minutes later. OTOH, Gukesh could not control himself after 55.- Rf2? was played, as seen in this cut:
Gukesh wins! - The final minutes of the FIDE World Championship 2024
A quite appropiate song for the moment could be Laura Branigan's Self Control, specially the line 'You take my self, you take my self control'.
Last but not least, congratulations for Gukesh and well played to Ding at some moments. This outcome somewhat reminds me the WCC 2010, when Anand and Topalov were 2-all and seven draws, only to see Anand winning with black in the last game... I really enjoyed that WCC (by the way, the first one followed by me with a chess engine, no less than FireBird 1.0 back then IIRC) and I think that this one was entertaining, with some twists here and there. Well done!
Regads from Spain.
Ajedrecista.
