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Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju capped a surprising ascent to the top of chess by dethroning China’s Ding Liren to change into the youngest ever world chess champion on Thursday in Singapore.
The 18-year-old from Chennai snatched the decisive victory from a dead-drawn place within the closing recreation of their best-of-14-games showdown when Ding made one of many worst blunders within the 138-year historical past of world championship matchplay. The 32-year-old defending champion resigned moments later after a recreation that lasted 58 strikes and simply over 4 hours, sealing Gukesh’s 7½-6½ win within the $2.5m match and rendering moot the extensively anticipated prospect of tiebreaker matches on Friday afternoon.
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World Chess Championship 2024
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The gamers
China’s Ding Liren is defending the world chess championship in opposition to fast-rising Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju. The best-of-14-games match is scheduled to happen from 23 November to fifteen December at Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore for an total prize fund of $2.5m (£1.98m).
Ding turned China’s first males’s world chess champion by defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi final 12 months in Kazakhstan, successful the title vacated by longtime world No 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway. But the 32-year-old from Zhejiang province has performed solely 44 classical video games within the 19 months since successful the world title whereas battling private difficulties together with melancholy and can go off as an underdog in his first world title protection.
Gukesh, generally often known as Gukesh D, surprised the chess institution by successful the eight-man Candidates match in Toronto aged 17 to change into the youngest ever challenger for the world championship, ending high of a stacked discipline that included Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. The 18-year-old can shatter the document for youngest ever world champion held by Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he dethroned Karpov of their 1985 rematch in Moscow.
The format
The match will include 14 classical video games with every participant awarded one level for a win and a half-point for a draw. Whoever reaches seven and a half factors first can be declared the champion.
The time management for every recreation within the classical portion is 120 minutes per facet for the primary 40 strikes, then half-hour for the remainder of the sport, with a 30-second increment per transfer beginning with transfer 41.
If the rating is equal after 14 video games, tiebreak video games with quicker time controls can be performed:
• A match consisting of 4 fast video games with quarter-hour per facet and a 10-second increment beginning with transfer 1 could be performed. If a participant scores 2½ factors or extra, he would win the championship.
• If the rating continues to be equal, a mini-match of two fast video games could be performed, with 10 minutes per facet and a five-second increment beginning with transfer 1. If a participant scored 1½ factors or extra, he would win the championship.
• If the rating is equal after the fast portion, a mini-match of two blitz video games could be performed, with a time management of three minutes per facet and a two-second increment beginning with transfer 1. If a participant scored 1½ factors or extra, he would win the championship. A drawing of heaps would happen earlier than every mini-match to resolve which participant performs with the white items.
• If the blitz mini-match are tied, a single blitz recreation with a time management of three minutes per facet and a two-second increment beginning with transfer 1 could be performed, and the winner would win the championship. A drawing of heaps would resolve which participant performs with the white items. If this recreation was drawn, one other blitz recreation with reversed colours could be performed with the identical time management, and the winner would win the championship. This course of is repeated till both participant wins a recreation.
Players aren’t allowed to comply with a draw earlier than black’s fortieth transfer. A draw declare earlier than then is just permitted if a threefold repetition or stalemate has occurred.
The schedule
Sat 23 Nov Opening ceremony and technical assembly
Sun 24 Nov Rest day
Mon 25 Nov Game 1 (Gukesh–Ding, 0-1)
Tue 26 Nov Game 2 (Ding-Gukesh, ½-½)
Wed 27 Nov Game 3 (Gukesh-Ding, 1-0)
Thu 28 Nov Rest day
Fri 29 Nov Game 4 (Ding-Gukesh, ½-½)
Sat 30 Nov Game 5 (Gukesh-Ding, ½-½)
Sun 1 Dec Game 6 (Ding-Gukesh, ½-½)
Mon 2 Dec Rest day
Tue 3 Dec Game 7 (Gukesh-Ding, ½-½)
Wed 4 Dec Game 8 (Ding-Gukesh, ½-½)
Thu 5 Dec Game 9 (Gukesh-Ding, ½-½)
Fri 6 Dec Rest day
Sat 7 Dec Game 10 (Ding-Gukesh, ½-½)
Sun 8 Dec Game 11 (Gukesh-Ding, 1-0)
Mon 9 Dec Game 12 (Ding-Gukesh, 1-0)
Tue 10 Dec Rest Day
Wed 11 Dec Game 13 (Gukesh-Ding, ½-½)
Thu 12 Dec Game 14 (Ding-Gukesh, 0-1)
Fri 13 Dec Tiebreaks (if needed)
Sat 14 Dec Closing ceremony
All video games begin at 5pm native time, 2.30pm in India, 9am in London, 4am in New York.
Gukesh mentioned he didn’t initially acknowledge Ding’s rook transfer as a blunder. It took a couple of seconds to appreciate that his opponent’s bishop was trapped.
“When I spotted it, it was most likely the very best second of my life,” he mentioned.
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Ding, taking part in with the white items, was higher out of the opening however Gukesh was in a position to unlock his items and stabilize within the middlegame. The draw appeared inevitable when materials beginning coming off the board in bunches beginning with transfer 19.
But a recreation that appeared sure for a peaceable end result abruptly turned difficult when Ding sacrificed a pawn in trade for a easy endgame. That left Gukesh with no alternative however to struggle on and he was very happy to punish his foe in a grueling endgame beneath mounting time strain.
That’s when Ding lastly cracked.
“I used to be completely in shock after I realized I made a blunder,” Ding mentioned. “His facial features confirmed that he was very pleased and excited and I spotted I made a blunder. It took a while to appreciate it.”
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Indian prime minister Narendra Modi was among the many first to congratulate Gukesh after he turned solely the second world champion from India together with Viswanathan Anand, who held the game’s most prestigious title from 2017 by means of 2013.
“Historic and exemplary!” Modi wrote on X. “Congratulations to Gukesh D on his exceptional accomplishment. This is the results of his unparalleled expertise, onerous work and unwavering willpower.”
After Ding resigned, the tears flowed as Gukesh sat the board overcome by emotion whereas tons of of his supporters set off scenes of jubilation within the spectators’ space.
“I most likely acquired so emotional as a result of I didn’t actually count on to win from that place,” Gukesh mentioned. “I used to be going to press it for so long as it as I may probably press, however I believed, ‘It’s OK. We are going to play for 5, six hours. It’s going to finish in a draw, and let’s deal with the tiebreaks.’
“But then abruptly after Rf2 and I noticed [the game] was really executed. I used to be already making ready myself to undergo that vast tiebreak struggle and abruptly it was throughout and I had achieved my dream. I’m not somebody who exhibits numerous feelings, however I feel this one will be forgiven.”
Last 12 months Ding turned the primary males’s world chess champion from China by defeating Russia’s Ian Nepomniachtchi in Kazakhstan, capturing the title abdicated by longtime world No 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway. But he’d performed very sparingly within the 19 months since then amid a well-documented bout with melancholy, together with a nine-month hiatus to prioritize his psychological well being.
He entered the title match having gone 28 classical video games with no win, a dreadful run of type that noticed him drop to twenty third on the planet rankings and prompted the oddsmakers to put in him as roughly a 3-1 longshot within the match. But he sprang a serious shock in Game 1 by successful as black, ending the 304-day winless streak with a riveting opening salvo.
Game 2 was a quiet draw, earlier than Gukesh roared again with a win in Game 3. The fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth and tenth video games had been every attracts. Gukesh gained on Sunday in Game 11 earlier than Ding struck again in Monday’s Game 12. The thirteenth recreation on Wednesday noticed Ding maintain on in a high-wire draw, leaving the rating at 6½-all coming into Thursday’s finale.
While Ding had been considered the underdog within the match as a result of his unremarkable type, he would have gone off as a slight favourite if Game 14 was drawn and the match was settled on Friday with a collection of tiebreak video games with quicker time controls.
“Champions all the time step up to date,” Gukesh mentioned. “Obviously the previous two years he hasn’t been in nice form, however he got here right here. He was clearly struggling throughout a few of video games. He was most likely not at his finest bodily. But he fought in all video games. He fought like a real champion.”
Gukesh, generally often known as Gukesh D, turned the third-youngest grandmaster in historical past at 12 years and 7 months. In April, at 17, he surprised the chess institution by successful the eight-man Candidates match in Toronto to change into the youngest ever challenger for the world championship, ending high of a stacked discipline that included Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana.
That Gukesh was even taking part in for the world title was a historic achievement. Until April, youngsters had had an detached document within the Candidates through the years. Only Bobby Fischer in 1959 and Magnus Carlsen in 2006, each then 16, had been youthful than Gukesh, and each had been also-rans.
“My journey, it’s been because the time I began taking part in chess at six and a half, seven [years old],” Gukesh mentioned. “I’ve been dreaming about this second for greater than 10 years. Every chess participant needs to expertise this second and only a few get the prospect. To be one in every of them is … I feel the one approach to clarify it’s I’m dwelling my dream.”
