Despite losing Game 12 of the World Chess Championship, Indian challenger D Gukesh still has an even chance of claiming the crown, provided he can settle the matter in the next two games, a mathematical prediction model indicates. World Champion Ding Liren won Game 12, regaining parity with his 18-year-old opponent at 6-6 in the best-of-14 match. If the scores are still deadlocked after the remaining two games, the contest will head into tie-breaks, where faster versions of rapid and, later blitz, if necessary, will come into play. Despite the latest setback for Gukesh, Mehmet Ismail — a Ph.D in economics from Maastricht University and a lecturer at King’s College, London who makes predictions for big-ticket chess events — gives both players a 50-50 percent chance to win in regulation time. In June, Ismail had done a similar data-based prediction for The Indian Express, where he had predicted that the overall chance of Gukesh winning the title was 63.4 percent if the contest was decided in the classical portion itself. His prediction that Ding holds …