Bengaluru, Dec. 10 -- On the night of his crushing Game 11 loss to D Gukesh, Ding Liren's Hungarian second Richard Rapport sent him a file titled 'strike back'. Ding made the words come alive on the board in Game 12, on Monday.
A day after the reigning world champion crumbled, blundered, lost and fell behind in the match, he played a flawless game to equalise the World Championship score 6-6, ahead of the final two classical games.
At this point two questions remain a mystery - where this World Championship is headed and which version of Ding will show up for the remaining two games. Both players will have one game each with the White pieces. Tuesday is a rest day.
Ding, playing White, opened with 1.c4 in Game 12, and Gukesh seemed to sw...