World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen of Norway believes that in current form, Indian ace D Gukesh is the favourite to win the World Chess Championship title versus Ding Liren of China. In the final duel starting later this month. The Indian Grandmaster will face reigning champion Ding at the World Chess Championship in Singapore, which runs from November 25 to December 15.
The 18-year-old Indian qualified for the final battle after winning the Candidates Tournament in Toronto earlier this year. The FIDE World Championship begins on Monday in Singapore. The official opening ceremony is slated for November 23, with the first game on November 25. Most grandmasters forecasting an early knockout for GM Gukesh Dommaraju, while GM Fabiano Caruana believes GM Ding Liren will win.
GM Hikaru Nakamura believes a Ding victory would set chess back two to four years. Garry Kasparov refuses to view the encounter as a world championship match. Gukesh has risen to world number five and was the top performer in the 2024 Chess Olympiad. Ding has slipped to number 23 after failing to win a classical game since January’s Wijk aan Zed tournament. Almost everyone has commented.
Gukesh vs Ding is a battle of generations
That of the old Ding, who was world number two in 2019. If even the Ding who defeated GM Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 match, shows up, we may have a fantastic fight. The time limit for each classical game is 120 minutes per player for the first 40 moves. 30 minutes for the remainder of the game. Beginning with move 41, a 30-second increment will be applied to each subsequent move.
Magnus Carlsen said, “I think Ding will get the first big chance. I could see a scenario where Ding gets two or three massive chances in the first five-six games, and he has to take them. Ding cannot lose the first game. He managed to come back against Ian, but from what we’ve seen from Ding for the last 1.5 years, I don’t think he’ll come back from losing the first game, so I agree.”
