2024 World Chess Championship: Game 1

2024 World Chess Championship: Game 1
Monday, 25 November 2024

Ding Liren wins the first game, quiets naysayers

The World Chess Championship match has begun! Prior to the match, most everyone, including top Grandmasters, picked Dommaraju Gukesh as the favorite over Ding Liren despite his lack of match experience. They predicated their idea on recent form and the meteoric rise of the 18-year-old Indian star. Gukesh had just led his nation to Olympiad gold after winning the Candidates.

Even worse, Garry Kasparov brought dishonor to the world crown by saying the match had no significance and the line of champions ended with Magnus Carlsen. Kasparov rambled about the rankings, yet Nepomniachtchi was #2 and Ding was #3 when they played in Kazakhstan. The best player isn’t always going to be playing for the title, a fact, Kasparov is well aware of.

Ding beat Ian Nepomniachtchi (also the favorite) but had been in poor shape the past year. Nevertheless, match play is an entirely different matter, a thought lost on many predicting a dominant win by Gukesh. When Ding crushed Gukesh in the first game of the match, headlines used words like “shocked,” “stunned,” and “upset.”

Media had bought into the notion that Gukesh was supposed to win easily. Even Arjun Erigaisi predicted a crushing match win. In reality, making predictions are such that you assume both players are going to be at their absolute best. While there is still a long match ahead, this Ding win put everyone back into a more reasonable expectation.

Nakamura also showed amazement after commenting unfavorably about Ding’s prospects of defending the crown. However, in his recap, he invoked the term “Ding chilling” and ended by saying the world champion showed great class. Fabiano Caruana, who picked Ding to win the match, also gave plaudits in the first game during his C-Squared podcast. You can watch the broadcast below.

In the game, Ding trotted out the French Defense, a suggestion of his second Richard Rapport and a weapon he essayed against Nepomniachtchi in Dubai. The game showed shades of Ding in top form and gave us a glimpse of what made him one of the most admired players on the elite circuit.

Fabiano Caruana analyzes game on C-Squared Podcast

Video by C-Squared Podcast