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The highly anticipated match world chess championship final is being held at Singapore’s Equarius Hotel in Resorts World Sentosa.
D Gukesh (left) looks comfy in his gaming chair. (Screengrab/FIDE)
India’s D Gukesh will be up against reigning champion China’s Ding Liren in the FIDE World Chess Championship Final 2024 scheduled to start on November 25 in Singapore. The highly anticipated game will be played at Singapore’s Equarius Hotel in Resorts World Sentosa. This marks just the second time the World Championship match is going to be hosted in Southeast Asia after Baguio in 1978. The 14th and the final round will take place on December 12. Ahead of the summit clash, a few pictures of the venue were shared by Chess.com India on X (formerly Twitter). “Singapore is all set and so are we,” read the post.
The two players will play a maximum of 14 Classical games and the one to cross the 7.5 points marker first will be adjudged the winner of the championship. Players will claim a point for each win and 0.5 each in case of a draw. If the match ends in a tie, games of shorter duration will be played to find out the winner.
Talking about the match, 18-year-old D Gukesh said, “Yeah, first of all, I’m very glad to be here. It’s a world championship is a very special event, and I’ve been looking forward to being here since the time I started playing chess. There are certainly some nerves, but, but yeah, I feel, I feel good about it. I’m eager to start playing. And yeah, the only thought I have is to give my best and yeah, see what happens.”
Ding Liren, on the other hand, is looking forward to the match-up as he feels less nervous than when he was the challenger. “Well, last time, my first World Championship match, I was very nervous, I said many times but this time, I feel peace and a lot of energy, and I hope we can produce the same exciting matches as the last time. Because last time, we really chased a lot of spectators to join us,” he said at the press conference on Saturday.
D Gukesh and Ding Liren have so far faced each other three times in classical time controls. Out of the three meetings, Liren emerged victorious on two occasions. Their last game, at the Sinquefield Cup, ended in a draw. Liren recently dropped to the number 23 spot in the world rankings having endured a series of under-par performances since clinching the title last year.