China’s Ding Liren is defending the world chess championship against fast-rising Indian teenager Gukesh Dommaraju. The best-of-14-games match for an overall prize fund of $2.5m (£1.98m) is all square at 6½-6½ after 13 games.
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Either Ding or Gukesh can win the world title with a win in today’s 14th game. If it ends in a draw, a series of tiebreak games with faster time controls will be played on Friday to determine the champion.
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Key events
Gukesh Dommaraju wins the world chess championship!
Stunning. They play it out for a few more moves (55…Rxf2 56 Kxf2 Bd5 57 Bxd5 Kxd5 58 Ke3 Ke5) but it was over in one move and both players knew it. Ding’s head is in hand, looking down at a lost pawn endgame. A horrific one-move blunder.
On the flipside, Gukesh can barely conceal his jubilation. He’s shattered the record for youngest ever undisputed world champion held by Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he dethroned Anatoly Karpov in their 1985 rematch in Moscow.
Ding blunders!
55 Rf2?? is a blunder! Oh no! Gukesh is winning! Loud roars in the playing hall. The 18-year-old from Chennai is about to become the youngest ever world champion!
The dance continues: 47 Rb4 Bf7 48 Kf2 Rd2+ 49 Kg1 Kf6 50 Rb6+ Kg5 51 Rb4 Be6 52 Ra4 Rb2 53 Ba8 Kf6 54 Rf4 Ke5. “If I had this in a regular tournament game, given the time sitation, I absolutely would not be 100% confidence in saving this game,” the American grandmaster Daniel Naroditsky says. “Ding Liren clearly thinks there’s something to worry about, otherwise he’d be playing instantly. But right now he’s losing time on every move. Even on increment, with good play, he should be able to draw.”
A couple of pawns off the board after 44 Bb7 Kg5 45 f3 f5 46 fxg4 hxg4. Says Susan Polgar: “Gukesh has no choice but to fight on because he is up a pawn. Ding was correct when he said after game 13 that there will not be a short draw in the final game. He is a man of his words. He never promised to win, just a long fight.”
The grind continues: 41 Kg1 Re6 42 Rc4 g4 43 Bd5 Rd6. Ding’s body language not great at the moment. He’s more than 45 minutes behind Gukesh on time.
Both players reach the time control after 38 Rb4 h5 39 Ra4 Re5 40 Bf3 Kh6. That’s 30 additional minutes plus a 30-second increment with each move.
On we go. Gukesh is making his opponent work to hold the draw after 32…g5 33 Bd5 Bf5 34 Rc1 Kg7 35 Rc7 Bg6 36 Rc4 Rb1+ 37 Kg2 Re1. Ding has been pondering his response for about six minutes now, leaving him 12 minutes to make his next three moves before the time control.
And there go a pair of rooks: 31…Rxa8 32 Bxa8. As in the 13th game, Ding has sacrificed a pawn in exchange for a simple endgame. But with a more than 30-minute advantage on the clock and an extra pawn, Gukesh will make the champion work for it. The Latvian grandmaster Arturs Neikšāns doesn’t like what he sees.
“Ding’s choices in this game are completely unrecognizable,” Neikšāns says. “Why enter an endgame down a pawn when there were many easy ways to draw before? Very strange.”
The queens are off the board! We’re headed into the endgame after: 27…g6 28 Qd4 Qb5 29 b4 Qxb4 30 Qxb4 Rxb4 31 Ra8. It’s not a dead-drawn position but we’re getting awfully close.
A few more moves: 26 a4 bxa3 27 Rxa3. And we have en passant for the second time in two days.
“Ding got what he wanted for game 14: No risk position to push,” Susan Polgar says. “Gukesh also got what he wanted: No risk hold then focus on the playoff.”
More material off the board after 23 Rfd1 Qb6 24 Bf3 fxg3 25 hxg3 b4. The win-loss-draw evaluation bar on the official broadcast indicates an 84.1% chance of a draw, highest of the day so far.
Ding initiates the pawn exchange (19 cxb5 axb5). A couple more material exchanges follow with 20 Nf4 exf4 21 Bxc6 Bxb2 22 Qxb2 Rb8. The position is looking drawish after the abrupt liquidation.
“Unless one of them suddenly makes a massive blunder, we are heading to the playoff,” the former women’s world champion Susan Polgar says. “Gukesh did a good job unlocking his pieces.”
Ding moves his knight into the center with 18 Nd5. Gukesh aims for counterplay with 18…b5 after a 10-minute think. White is more comfortable out of the opening but no immediate danger for black.
“True to his style, Gukesh plays the most ambitious move,” the English IM Jovanka Houska says on the official Fide broadcast. “It’s ambitious because it aims to resolve the tension immediately. If Ding just reacts in a timid way, the position will probably fizzle out into a draw. But if he chooses to rise to the occasion, Ding could really just embrace the complications and we’re going to see a big struggle on the board.”
Ding pushes his b-pawn (14 b3). The engines say Gukesh needs to find a6 or the evaluation will spike further in white’s direction. And after eight minutes he finds it! The next moves: 14…a6 15 Nc3 Bd4 16 Bb2 e5 17 Qd2 Be6.
“In my mind Ding is now a heavy favorite to win it,” Leko says on Chess24’s broadcast. “Though we know it’s the last game, nerves are in play, there are chances for Gukesh to hold it. But it will be a nightmare.”
Gukesh passes on a fight in the center drops the bishop back with 13…Bb6?!. The engines don’t like that move for the challenger as the evaluation bar swings in Ding’s direction.
“I’m to be honest completely shocked by this move,” Leko says on the Chess24 broadcast. “I have seen the move but I did not even want to mention it because I somehow felt that this is just bad. Now white might get a free advantage.”
The evaluation bar on the official stream before Bb6 had it 22.3% for a Ding win, 15.0% for a Gukesh win and 62.7% for a draw. Now? It’s reading 41.5% for a Ding win, 10.4% for a Gukesh win and 48.1% for a draw.
A pawn exchange on d4 (11 exd4 Bxd4). And Ding is back in the tank. He’s already a half hour behind Gukesh on time. No surprise there: most of these games have seen the champion go down on the clock in the opening. A few more moves: 12 Nc3 O-O 13 Nb5.
Ding has spent 20 minutes and counting mulling his response to 10…Bc5. Fide president Arkady Dvorkovich has joined the official broadcast, giving his assessment of the opening.
“I think the opening choice from Ding was an expected one,” Dvorkovich says. “And Gukesh prepared variations that nobody expected. The structure is still more or less standards. There are just some specific lines that differ from standard Tarrasch variations. There’s a lot of life in this position. Of course it all depends on the motivation of the players and whether Ding is ready for a big fight today or he wants to make a safe line [for a draw and tiebreakers].”
A couple more moves from both players: 9 Qd1 d4 10 e3 Bc5. The engines have the position as even with both players apparently out of their opening preparation. Bc5 is the first novel move of the game.
Another opening surprise from Gukesh. Ding thinks for 13 minutes before playing 7 c4. Black initiates a trade of knights (7…Nxd4 8 Qxd4) before threatening white’s queen with 8…Nc6.
“It’s a surprise from Gukesh, but it’s also a very risky one,” the Hungarian grandmaster Peter Leko says on Chess24’s broadcast. “I don’t believe black can play like this if he’s not super-prepared. One inaccuracy and you can end up in a lot of trouble.”
A few more moves: 2…c5 3 Bg2 Nc6 4 d4. And we’re into a Reversed Grünfeld. After six moves by each player (4…e6 5 O-O cxd4 6 Nxd4 Nge7), there are only three games in the masters database that have reached this position.
Game 14 is under way!
The King’s Indian Attack is on the board. Ding opens with 1 Nf3 before developing the light-square bishop with a fianchetto.
The format
Here’s a review of the format for the world championship match. Ding and Gukesh have played 13 of 14 classical games with each player awarded one point for a win and a half-point for a draw. The score is tied 6½-6½, meaning either player can clinch the title with a win in today’s game. If it results in another draw and the match ends in a 7-7 deadlock, a series of tiebreak games with faster time controls will be played on Friday.
A match consisting of four rapid games with 15 minutes per side and a 10-second increment starting with move 1 would be played. If a player scores 2½ points or more, he would win the championship.
If the score is still equal, a mini-match of two rapid games would be played, with 10 minutes per side and a five-second increment starting with move 1. If a player scored 1½ points or more, he would win the championship.
If the score is equal after the rapid portion, a mini-match of two blitz games would be played, with a time control of three minutes per side and a two-second increment starting with move 1. If a player scored 1½ points or more, he would win the championship. A drawing of lots would take place before each mini-match to decide which player plays with the white pieces.
If the blitz mini-match are tied, a single blitz game with a time control of three minutes per side and a two-second increment starting with move 1 would be played, and the winner would win the championship. A drawing of lots would decide which player plays with the white pieces. If this game was drawn, another blitz game with reversed colors would be played with the same time control, and the winner would win the championship. This process is repeated until either player wins a game.
The complete official regulations can be found here.
We’ve gone through the 138-year history of the world championship and chosen 22 of the most memorable games. You can go move by move through each of them here. It’s the perfect timesuck with roughly 10 minutes to go before today’s first move.
From the middle of the 16th century, there have come down to us the names of chess players who have been widely regarded as the strongest of their time. The earliest of these was the Spanish priest Ruy López de Segura, after whom one of the most popular openings of modern times is named. Others who followed include the Calabrese Gioachino Greco, François-André Danican Philidor, Louis-Charles Mahé de La Bourdonnais, Alexander McDonnell, Howard Staunton, Adolf Anderssen, Mikhail Chigorin and Paul Morphy, each of whom are lionized for their contributions to the development of theory and strategy as well as their dominance over their board during their respective eras.
But not until Wilhelm Steinitz and Johannes Zukertort sat down in a small room at 80 Fifth Avenue in New York City on the afternoon of 11 January 1886 did a formal competition to determine the best player on the planet come to pass. Their first-to-10-wins encounter was held in three US cities over the next 78 days for a prize fund of $4,000. Since then, the world chess championship has provided the stage for countless unforgettable contests showcasing the precision, imagination and brilliance of the royal game at the highest level.
The credibility of Ding’s world title, of course, remains an open question. The absence of Magnus Carlsen continues to loom large over the sport’s showcase event. The 33-year-old Norwegian has been ranked No 1 for more than 14 straight years and was considered the world’s best player even before he defeated Viswanathan Anand for the world championship in 2013. He strengthened his claim as the greatest player of any era in 2021, when he crushed Nepomniachtchi in Dubai in the fourth defense of the title.
But Carlsen decided against defending it for a fifth time in 2023, citing a lack of motivation to go through the months-long slog of preparation that championship matches demand. It marked only the second time in the history of world title matchplay that a holder opted not to defend his crown after Bobby Fischer controversially forfeited the belt in 1975.
Instead, Ding defeated Nepomniatchi in a thrilling match for the vacant title, even if critics including longtime world champion Garry Kasparov branded it an “amputated” event without the world’s best player involved.
Kasparov only doubled down on that sentiment ahead of this year’s title match, saying:
My hottest take is that I don’t treat it as a world championship match. For me a world championship match was always the match for the title of the best player in the world. I think the history of the world championship matches, it started, by the way, here in St Louis, with Steinitz facing Zukertort back in 1886, has ended with Magnus Carlsen. There were 16 world champions, you could call them at every given moment the best players. It’s those who took the title by beating the best player. With all due respect, Ding playing Gukesh, it’s an important event, it’s still a Fide event, it’s an ‘official title’, but these days with all the modern technologies, with chess getting faster and faster, with our lives getting also faster, to keep an antiquated system of qualification, 18 months or longer, to select the challenger, it’s not adequate. … It’s an event that has nothing to do with the main idea of the world championship – to decide, to define the best player on the planet.
Well then!
Preamble
Hello and welcome to Game 14 of the world chess championship. China’s Ding Liren and India’s Gukesh Dommaraju are facing off in a best-of-14-games match for the winner’s share of a $2.5m (£1.98m) prize fund at the Equarius Hotel at Resorts World Sentosa, an island resort off Singapore’s southern coast. It’s the first time in the 138-year history of world championship matchplay that two men from Asia are competing for the sport’s most prestigious title.
Ding became China’s first men’s world chess champion by defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi last year on tiebreakers in Kazakhstan. Known for his solid and precise playing style based on creating small positional advantages from quiet openings, the 32-year-old from Zhejiang province is the highest-rated Chinese player of all time. A graduate of Peking University Law School, he once went unbeaten in 100 straight classical games, a record streak broken only by Magnus Carlsen in 2019.
Gukesh Dommaraju, commonly known as Gukesh D, is an 18-year-old Indian prodigy who became the third-youngest grandmaster in history at 12 years and seven months. In April, at 17, the Chennai native stunned the chess establishment by winning the eight-man Candidates tournament in Toronto to become the youngest ever challenger for the world championship, finishing top of a stacked field that included Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura and Fabiano Caruana. An aggressive player known for using sharp, tactical openings to create complex positions aimed at unsettling opponents, he can shatter the record for youngest ever undisputed world champion held by Garry Kasparov, who was 22 when he dethroned Karpov in their 1985 rematch in Moscow.
We’re a little more than a half hour from the ceremonial first move. Plenty more to come.