Chennai, Dec 11 (Reporter) After an intense 5-hour long battle, the penultimate and the 13th game between Indian Challenger D Gukesh and reigning Chinese champion Ding Liren ended in a nervy draw in Singapore on Wednesday night, as the contest headed for a grand climax on the tomorrow with one last round remaining. After 68 moves, the longest so far in this 14-game Classical Chess contest, the match ended in a draw and both the players were tied at 6.5 points each, heightening the excitement among the Chess enthusiasts as they gear up for the final round tomorrow. Who will prevail. Both the players have shown enough resilience after lead changed hands amid a plethora of draws, the decider on the morrow promises to be an enthralling thriller and an intense contest is on the cards. It has now finally boiled down to a battle between the youthful exuberance of Gukesh and the experience of Ding Liren, who is keen to defend the title. It also remains to be seen what the opening they will chose as the Chinese enjoys an advantage as he will be playing with White pieces. In a game of fluctuating fortunes, when the young Indian enjoyed the middle game advantage, before the experienced Liren neutralised it, the contest finally ended in a draw after an intense and nervy battle. This is the ninth draw and both of them have so far won two games each. After a setback when Liren stormed back into contention winning the 12th game on Monday after losing the previous one, both the players were now tied and they need nothing short of a win. Whoever, wins tomorrow's match, which is expected to be even more intense and billed as a battle of supremacy, will be crowned the King of 64 squares to avoid the tie-breaker. In the event of the much awaited, evenly poised game, ending in a draw, the tie-breaker will decide the winner. After a day's much needed rest, when both Gukesh and Liren sat before the board for the crunch 13th game, the match was tied at six points with only two classical games remaining. Nerves ran high as any mistake could turned out to be decisive and the players showed incredible concentration considering the circumstances. At one stage, GM Ding Liren was on the verge of losing. A mixture of excellent defensive skills combined with a lot of good luck, the outcome was much better than anyone anticipated. “I was confused with my opponents opening move order. He tricked me with his idea of delaying f4”, said Ding after the match. "I also missed his excellent moves 19.Qe2 and 22.Bf4. He was able to gradually improve his position”, he said. On the other hand, Gukesh admitted that he missed a key defensive idea. “I thought I played quite a good game. When I played 31.Ne4 I missed his defence idea with 31…Rf8 and 32…Rc7. My initial intention was to exchange rooks first and only then Ne4, which should be winning” he said. “I don’t think you will see a short draw tomorrow” was Ding’s final words before joining his team to prepare for the most important game of the year and his career, where a win will land him the second successive title...////...