At one point of game 5 of the FIDE World Championship, Ding Liren seemed to be favourite to force a result, but D Gukesh's defensive nous ensured that it would be honours shared to keep the score tied at 2.5 - 2.5.
Gukesh started in a highly unorthodox manner, attacking Ding's French defence with an exchange variation (the queens were off the table by move nine) but the reigning champion held his ground before chipping forward down the king's side flank. It was here where an unorthodox Gukesh move (Nxg5 and then Ngf3) allowed Ding to encroach deeper into Gukesh's territory.
With the rook exchange available, Gukesh moved his knight to protect his remaining rook and at that point, Gukesh said he blundered at the moment when taking Ding's bishop with pawn instead of rook.
What followed was a quick retreat before Gukesh reorganized following a series of kills on either side. With Ding not capitalizing on the big advantage he had, Gukesh closed ranks and that was that.
A two-fold repetition towards the end led to both making 40 moves, and a draw was accepted by both parties.
This keeps the 14 game match finely poised, with the scores tied. Gukesh has now played three games with white and has lost, won and drawn once each. Today's performance will have a two-fold effect on him: in jolting out any remaining complacency because of that precarious mid-game position he found himself in and in feeding his self-belief, knowing that he can continue to work out solutions on the board no matter how much of an upper hand Ding may seem to have.
You can relive the match right here in our blog: