The complete guide to the match worth the chess throne

In Singapore, from 25 November to 13 December, Gukesh Domaraju’s Lyrics they face each other to decide who will be the next World Chess Champion. The title is in the hands of the Chinese player who won it in 2023, after overtaking the Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi. The challenger, exponent of the new wave of very strong Indian athletes, won the Candidates tournament, organized precisely to define who should have the chance to dethrone the Champion. Gukesh, born in 2006, could become the youngest in history to secure the title. The prize money up for grabs is equal to 2.5 million dollars and the main sponsor, Google, will ensure greater diffusion of the event on a global level. It is the first world crown match in 138 years to feature two competitors from Asia.

14 classic time games will be played. The winner will be the chess player who reaches 7.5 points first. Each game could become a marathon: there will be 120 minutes available for the first 40 moves; another 30 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting from the 41st move. The draw can only be agreed between the players after the 40th move. If at the end of the 14 matches the situation is still in the balance, we will proceed with quicker timed tie-breaks. There are 4 days of rest planned.

The headquarters

The Asian city-state was chosen as a suitable place to host the challenge also due to its profound technological vocation, as well as having always been one of the most iconic tourist and commercial centers in the world. Even today it is one of the most innovative hubs on the entire planet and boasts one of the highest GDPs per capita. For the second time in history, the world title match will be played in Southeast Asia. The first time was in Baguio, Philippines, where they faced each other in 1978Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi.

The Singapore Chess Federation has made an early commitment to ensuring the highest standards, ensuring the luxurious Resorts World Sentosa as a place to host matches. The gaming room is located within the Equarius Hotel, a 5-star island property with stunning views of the surrounding rainforest. It is located, precisely, off the southern coast of Singapore, and is connected to the city via several options: a classic and easy road, a cable car, a pedestrian walkway and even a monorail.

One-way forecasts

There is no player or insider who would bet on Ding Liren’s victory today. The 32-year-old from Wenzhou is coming off a terrible year. The problems appeared right after the conquest of the throne. Ding played poorly. For many months he disappeared from the scene with a thousand rumors chasing each other about his precarious state of health and the burden and pressure of fame that he could not bear. There have been rumors of a possible depression and some have raised doubts as to whether the Chinese player could give up on defending his title. In moments of greatest absence there was open talk of early retirement. Then things got better. Ding showed up more often. He admitted to having several difficulties related to his mental health but he also reassured us about his willingness to play the match. His performances on the board, however, did not improve, so much so that he himself indicated Gukesh as the favorite on the eve. “I will be the underdog in this match. I hope to become a very different player to put him in difficulty. I have to try to slow down his pace.” The press conference in which Ding, who had just become the 17th World Chess Champion after his victory over Ian Nepomniachtchi, spoke of being a Juventus fan and wanting to go to see a match in Turin, seems light years away.

On the other side of the board Gukesh is not joking at all and continues to grind out victory after victory. He won the gold medal at the Olympics, confirming himself as one of the strongest players in the world and is focused on what to do: he wants to win, at all costs. And he doesn’t want to hear about predictions, favorites and imbalances at all. The young Indian is perfectly aware that he cannot make mistakes, that he has a huge chance in his hands to bring the title back to India, repeating Anand’s feat. “It’s a new experience for me. It’s hard work, but I like it, so let’s see what happens next.” And he also thinks that his age will prove to be an advantage: “I have more energy and it is perhaps easier for me to stay focused during very long tournaments.”

And it is perhaps precisely for this reason that this challenge is taking on increasingly fascinating contours: the underdog, already condemned to defeat, against the young prodigy, who is already tasting victory. All the ingredients are there for a starred dish. And Ding can get new life from the numbers: it is he who leads the direct, long-term battles against Gukesh: two victories, a draw and no defeats. At Wijk aan Zee in January Ding had a terrible tournament but one of his only two victories came against Gukesh. It is also interesting to analyze the point of view of Carlsen, the world number one: “Gukesh is the big favorite and if he manages to ‘hit’ first then he will win easily. However, the longer it goes on” without the balance tipping for one of the two contenders, “the better it will be for Ding, because he has all the skills needed but lacks confidence and serenity”.

Chiè Ding Liren

Born in 1992, Ding was introduced to chess at the age of four. He immediately achieved prestigious results that put him in the spotlight of the chess community. The joint first place in the Under-10 and Under-12 World Youth Championships (in 2003 and 2004 respectively) raised expectations about his future. At just 16 years old, Ding became China’s youngest national champion ever. A title that he would also win in 2011 and 2012.He then helped his national team win the gold medal at the Olympics in 2014. In 2015, he became the second Chinese player to break into the top 10, after Wang Yue. In the following years his name bounced from mouth to mouth, from tournament to tournament.In 2018, he won individual and team gold at the 43rd Chess Olympiad and became the first Chinese player to surpass the Elo rating of 2800, reaching a maximum rating of 2816, the tenth highest in the history of the game.

Then came “the centello” with which he won headlines and newspaper articles. From August 2017 to November 2018, Ding was the protagonist of a 100-match classic-time unbeaten streak. But that was also a period of chiaroscuro. His first attempt at the world crown, namely participation in the 2018 Candidates Tournament in Berlin, did not go very well: the Wenzhou native won only one match out of 14, collecting 13 draws. He fared much better in 2019 when he won both the Sinquefield Cup and the Grand Chess Tour. In 2020 came his second attempt at the Candidates Tournament in Yekaterinburg, Russia. Despite being the favorite, Ding only finished fifth.

But it is in Madrid in 2022, in his third Candidates Tournament, that everything changes. Also thanks to luck. Ding qualified only after playing a series of hastily organized tournaments in China and only after benefiting from Sergey Karjakin’s disqualificationRussian player aligned with Putin. He came second, after a great comeback, behind Ian Nepomniachtchi. Under normal circumstances, this would not have been enough for the world championship match. However, after Magnus Carlsen’s withdrawal from the title defense, the two contenders became Nepo and Ding. A spectacular race took place in Astana, with no holds barred, with sudden overturns and overturns. The Chinese player won the tie-break and thus became the 17th ‘World Champion’ in the long history of chess.

Who is Gukesh Domaraju

The first thing to know is its name. Sometimes it is found complete. Sometimes only the form ‘Gukesh’ appears. Still more Gukesh D. The latter is the version that the 18-year-old from Chennai prefers. The second thing to know is that he learned to play chess at school at the age of seven, under the pressure of his parents, an ENT surgeon and a microbiologist. That is, at a later age than today’s great players. But he recovered quickly: six months later he already had an official FIDE score and, in the following 3 years, he was already collecting small trophies and plaques with the words “first place”.The title of GM came on January 15, 2019, at the age of 12 years, seven months and 17 days.The Chennai native became the second youngest person in history to achieve this achievement after Sergey Karjakin. He could have broken this record but was stopped, a few weeks earlier, by a draw that did not allow him to complete his journey. Looking at his palmares one is amazed. He won the World Under-12 Chess Championships and five gold medals at the Asian Youth Chess Championships, winning competitions in all formats (classical, rapid, blitz and team).

Gukesh caught global attention in 2022 when he won individual gold at the Chess Olympiad, with a score of 9/11 and thus helping the ‘India 2’ team win the bronze. However, it was precisely his mistake that excluded that team of very young people from access to the highest steps of the podium. In the same year he surpassed 2700 Elo points, becoming the third youngest chess player to do so, after Wei Yi and Alireza Firouzja. In 2023, he reached 2750, becoming the youngest player ever to do so, and then in September, he reached eighth place in the world rankings, surpassing Viswanathan Anand as the highest-ranked Indian player, a title Anand held for over 37 years.

ArBy finishing second in the 2023 FIDE Circuit, an event characterized by a series of events that take place throughout the year, he secured a place among the 2024 Candidates. And that’s where he made his big splash. He prevailed over other more anticipated players, such as Caruana and Nepo, ofbecoming the youngest challenger ever for the title of World Champion. For many, one of his secrets is Grzegorz Gajewski, his main coach. The Pole, 39 years old, helped him at the Candidates, especially in improving the aspect of nerve control and everything related to managing media pressure (which is very strong in India). In September Gukesh also took great revenge with regards to the Olympics. In Budapest, playing first board, he recorded the stratospheric score of 9/10, leading his national team to gold and thus avenging the mistake made two years earlier. And now only the last scalp is missing, the most important. The one that gives a direct ticket to the Olympus of the game.