2024 World Chess Championship (Singapore City)

The 2024 World Chess Championship has begun in Singapore with all eyes focused on the all-Asia match, the first in the history of the sport. China’s Ding Liren (Lizhen) is the reigning world champion facing the 18-year-old Indian star Dommaraju Gukesh. We provided a preview two weeks ago.

Despite the fact that most Grandmasters and pundits are picking Gukesh to become the youngest world champion ever, Ding will be motivated to prove naysayers wrong about his chances. While he has admitted to being considered the underdog, one may imagine that these are simply words to relieve the immense pressure as champion.

 I think that if we are objective about the situation, a Ding win would be very bad for chess. With all the interest in India at the moment I think that a Ding win would perhaps set chess back by two or four years.

~Hikaru Nakamura on Ding-Gukesh (source)

There has been a great deal of anticipation, but there has been controversial statements made by chess legends. Garry Kasparov contends that there are only 16 world champions, disregarding Ding’s title. Hikaru Nakamura states that chess will be set back 2-4 years if Ding wins. These are strange comments and certainly not befitting of players of this stature.

Firstly, Ding is the champion and Gukesh is the rightful challenger. Let’s not evoke memories of Kasparov’s defection from the cycle, creating the exact scenario we have today. Secondly, chess will not be set back any time since the momentum in India has already happened. Whether Gukesh wins or not, it will not be any worse for India.

A win for Ding will further cement China’s elite position in chess. The country has already dominated in all phases of chess in the past decade… both individual and team. It is not clear how a Ding win would damage the image of chess any more than the cheating controversies in the past two years. In fact, the rise of China and India has been reported on these pages for 20 years. If Ding wins, it’s good for chess; if Gukesh wins, it’s also good for chess.

23 years ago, I wrote about the rise of China and India. Vishy was only 31 at the time and Harikrishna was 14! It took a while, but here they are! #worldchesschampionships https://t.co/9Be0WiTtx8 via @thechessdrum @FIDE_chess

— Daaim Shabazz (@thechessdrum) November 25, 2024

However, what we will have is a definite changing of the guard with players in their 30s (Carlsen, Nakamura, Caruana, Giri, MVL, Ding) already being overshadowed by teenagers. However, it may be too early to expect the young stars to begin dominating in short order. This match will see a battle of generations and maybe we are not done with the 90s yet!

Opening Press Conference

The opening press conference was attended by FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich and Grandmaster Kevin Goh Wei Ming who is the CEO of the Singaporean Chess Federation. Dvorkovich was pleased that Google had stepped in to become the titled partner, which shows that chess has an attractive quality despite not having marquee names in the championship.

“When I heard the news that Google was going to join as a titled partner, I was really excited. We were joined by a global company who has reached the whole world, showing that the game of chess is really something.

This partnership brings us a unique visibility, that we haven’t experienced for many years – for that we are very thankful to the Google team. I think during the next three weeks, we shall see something completely unprecedented every day on social media and on the web driven by Google resources.”

~ Arkady Dvorkovich, President of FIDE

Both players were in great moods and showed mutual respect. This may be a sharp departure from previous matches were there was a palpable tension in the air. This all-Asian match put on display the calm sensibilities and humble demeanor present in both players. Both are well-mannered, courteous and respectable and we can expect a sporting match.

Video by FIDE Chess

Opening Ceremony

Video by ChessBase India