A Broken Champion vs. A Powerful Challenger
Ding vs Gukesh; unless you've been living under a rock, you probably know something about the upcoming clash of the two titans for the ultimate crown of chess. Gukesh Dommaraju, ranked #5 in the world, will be playing against Ding Liren, ranked #21, for the World Champion title between November 25 and December 13, 2024.
There were three bids to host the match, two from India (New Delhi and Chennai) and one from Singapore. In July, it was announced that the 59th World Chess Championship will be held on the island of Sentosa, Singapore. Fourteen classical games will be played, and depending on the players' scores after the 14 games, rapid tiebreaks will be conducted. The match is sponsored by Google and has a prize fund of $2.5 million.
Gukesh Dommaraju - The Challenger
Gukesh qualified for the World Championship by winning the Candidates tournament earlier this year. He qualified for the Candidates through the FIDE Circuit and went 9/14, winning 5 games, losing 1 and drawing the others. In the FIDE Olympiad held in September, he remained undefeated and scored 9/10 (8 wins, two draws) with a performance rating of 3056.
Gukesh is currently the clear favorite for almost everyone. He is playing very well and his aggressive style of play makes him a very challenging opponent. His only disadvantage is that he has less experience than Ding.
During the Olympiad, Team India was going to play against Team China in round 7, and many anticipated a preview of the World Chess Championship. However, Ding chose not to play in that round. As a result, China's current #1 player, Wei Yi, faced off against Gukesh instead.
All the other games in the match had concluded, resulting in a tie with both teams at 1.5 - 1.5. If Gukesh were to draw his game, it would end India's winning streak. However, Gukesh managed to win this game with an incredible endgame.
Ding Liren - The Champion
On April 30th 2023, Ding became the World Chess Champion after defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the rapid tiebreaker. Since becoming the champion, Ding has not participated in many tournaments and has not performed well in the ones he has played. As a result, his ranking has dropped from #3 to #21, causing concern in the chess world about his ability to defend his title. His experience is one of the only things in his favor.
At the Norway Chess tournament, Ding finished in last place with only 7 out of 33 points. During his game against Magnus Carlsen, he made a critical blunder and missed a mate in 2 threat, ultimately losing the game.
Can you spot the winning move?
Obviously missing mate-in-two like that can only happen if you’re completely out-of-sorts, as Ding is, and I feel bad for him because he looks miserable while playing.
- Magnus Carlsen
Ding performed poorly at the FIDE Olympiad, scoring 3.5/8 points and not winning a single game. He had a relatively low-performance rating of 2664. Many Grandmasters believe that Ding would be the clear favourite if he could overcome his personal challenges and return to his prime form from 2018-2019.
HIKARU NAKAMURA vs DING LIREN - Norway Chess, Round 9
After 4 devastating losses, Ding Liren managed to defeat Hikaru with the Black pieces. Nakamura's play was too risky and Ding, fortunately, didn't miss anything this time.
Head-To-Head Record
Gukesh and Ding have played against each other three times at classical time controls. They played each other in the 2023 and 2024 Tata Steel Masters tournaments, with Ding winning both games. Their most recent match at the Sinquefield Cup ended in a draw.
My Prediction
It's hard to predict the outcome of a match before it happens. Ding has beaten Gukesh twice, but those games were played before Gukesh's recent successes, before the Candidates and the Olympiad. Ding and Gukesh are both likeable players and capable of winning this match. Ding has a defensive style of play and, before his recent "decline," he had a reputation for not losing games. Ding has played 100 classical games without a loss before (between August 10, 2017, and November 10, 2018), and if he's able to overcome his recent problems, he will have a much better chance of winning the match. However, considering the current state of things, I think I'll have to pick Gukesh as my prediction to win the 2024 World Chess Championship. He's been playing very well recently, consistently beating top GMs, and Ding himself has praised Gukesh's recent play.
Either way, I'll be happy if either player wins. It would be equally satisfying to see Ding win despite all the problems he's going through or to see Gukesh win and become the youngest World Chess Champion. I wish them both the best, and I can't wait for November 25th.
It's been a while since my last blog post (5 months 
) and I thought it'd be fun to write about this. I'm not sure when I'll be posting again but thanks for reading this one, have a great day!
