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Gukesh's Major Comeback In The World Chess Championship of 2024

Gukesh's Major Comeback In The World Chess Championship of 2024

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As we all know, the World Chess Championship 2024 already started on November 25, 2024 and will end on December 15, 2024. The two players that are versing each other are Ding Liren and Gukesh. 

Information

  • The prize pool for the winner is a staggering $2,500,000.
  • The 2024 FIDE World Championship will take place in Singapore.
  • There will be a total of 14 games in the championship.

Who Are These People?


        Ding Liren is currently the reigning champion. He managed to beat Ian Nepomniachtchi which secured his position as the winner of the 2022 FIDE World Chess Championship. His nationality/federation is China.

          Gukesh Dommaraju is a chess prodigy who is the third-youngest grandmaster in the history of chess. He became the challenger for the 2024 FIDE Chess Championship by winning the 2024 FIDE Candidates Tournament with of a score of 9/14. His nationality/federation is India.

Match Format/Rules

  • The championship will consist of up to 14 classical games.
  • The first player to score 7.5 points automatically becomes the world champion.
  • Players aren't allowed to have a draw by agreement before move #41.
  • The time control is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes to the end of the game, with a 30-second increment for each move after move #41.

     Round 1


 

Ding Liren manages to beat Gukesh in the first round by being a bit aggressive and trying ways to pin his opponent in a tricky spot and he won in under 43 moves.

Ding Liren's post Game 1 comments on his opening prep and match strategy were interesting as he said, "However, before the match, I had prepared immensely.  But I was indeed surprised at the opening variation he chose which wasn't entirely what I had expected, so maybe the preparation didn't go that well."

Round 2


                       


                       


The game wasn't that long as it ended on the move #22. Both players played very evenly and made it impossible for the other opponent to win. The game ended in a draw because of repetition. 

I managed to find an interview with Ding Liren After Game 2 Of 2024 FIDE World Chess Championship:

Interviewer: We're here once again with Grandmaster Ding Liren, who played a solid draw today. I'm curious, did your win in round one affect your choice of openings in this round?

Ding Liren: Actually, we discussed before the match and we prepared to play the first game, start first wide game with e4. And my second convinced me to play e4. Although I'm quite uncertain about the a lot of possibilities after that. By the end, I decided to follow their advice.

Interviewer: And you told us that you actually got some messages after your round one win. Were those private messages to your phone, or did you go online to read what others had to say about your game?

Ding Liren: No, no. Most messages come to my phone, and I didn't check the news carefully.

 Interviewer: Can you tell us how many messages you got?  5, 10, 100?

 Ding Liren: No, no, no. Not so much. Not as much as the time I win the World Championship match. It's around 20.

 Interviewer: Okay, that's still quite a lot. And finally, when you go home, are you going to discuss today's game with Richard Report, or do you guys go right into the discussion of the next round game?

 Ding Liren: Well, of course, first we will talk about today's game, see where I made some mistakes, and then we will prepare a little bit for tomorrow's game.

Interviewer: That makes sense. Okay. Well, a dream start for Grandmaster Ding Liren. A win in round one, a solid draw in round two. And thanks, as always, for your time. 

Round 3


 

Gukesh had to win this game in order for him to secure his position in the championship. If he had lost this game, he would've probably lost the championship.

Ding Liren in this game was really thinking about what to play that he probably forgot they were playing with a clock and he ran out of time which led him to resign.

Update

Gukesh managed to get 7.5 points to secure his position as the Champion of the tournament. It was a 50/50 chance for the tie-breaker which was game 14 as they both had 6.5 points.

Congrats to Gukesh for the title as champion of 2024 and to Ding Liren for trying his best!

See you all in the next blog!