The FIDE world chess championship battle between holder Ding Liren and challenger D Gukesh spiced up quite early, with the Chinese grandmaster winning game 1 before allowing his opponent to level the score in Game 3. Heading into Tuesday’s Game 7, both players are tied with three points each after three successive draws.

“Frankly, I am very disappointed by today’s game (Game 6). Even Game 5 was not extremely high level, but today it was really — for a professional — it was really weak play from both players. It’s a very disappointing level,” former world champion Kramnik ranted while analysing game 6 on his YouTube channel.

“It’s such a strange game. Both players were making mistake after mistake, strategical mistakes. As if they don’t get the sense of the position. Maybe I’m old-school but it’s pretty basic! Of course, they’re both great players and great calculators. They calculate fantastically. But I expect something a bit more from a world championship match, like ideas! Human play, human concepts! If I want to enjoy chess as just a game of calculation, I would rather watch a world championship of chess engines!”

Kramnik said that he didn’t even want to analyse Game 6 too deeply because there were “too many obvious and conceptual mistakes”. He pointed out a specific instance when Gukesh could have pushed for a win in the endgame with a push of his king while also pointing out how Ding had made life difficult for himself by making inaccuracies on the board.