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The opening ceremony of the World Chess Championship match takes place today in Singapore. Hosted by the Singapore Chess Federation, supported by the Government of Singapore, under auspices

of the FIDÉ, the World Chess Federation, the match will feature the defending champion Ding Liren from China and the challenger Dommaraju Gukesh from India. The match will start on Monday

and could continue until December 15, 2024. The FIDÉ World Championship Match is one of the most important and widely watched  chess events globally. Held every two years, it features the

defending World Champion  and the Challenger, chosen through a qualification process culminating in the Candidates Tournament, which includes eight of the world’s top players. The defending

Champion, Ding Liren, 32, won the title after defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in Astana, Kazakhstan, in April 2023 on tiebreaks. The Challenger is Dommaraju Gukesh, 18, who won the Candidates

Tournament in April 2024 in Toronto. The absent elephant, who is not in the room, is of course Magnus Carlsen. I had earlier coined the phrase  Zwergenschlacht (“battle of dwarves”) for the

forthcoming match between the two, relatively speaking, dwarves who are competing for the supreme chess title, in the absence of the dominant player of our time, Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen has 

notably resigned the title, yet continues to compete in, and win, every other chess event in which he competes. Perhaps my original appraisal of the two contenders was overly harsh.     

Since my dismissal of Gukesh as a relative Lilliputian, the teenage Indian Grandmaster has gone on to score an impressive personal result in the Budapest Chess Olympiad, while additionally

leading the Indian team to the Gold Medals.  Meanwhile, taking a fresh look at the last world championship  match in 2023, which crowned Ding Liren as champion, it would seem that at his

best, Ding is an impressive strategist and certainly a most courageous combatant, with nerves of titanium in a crisis.  FIDÉ received three competitive applications for hosting the World

Championship Match –  from New Delhi (India), Chennai (India), and Singapore. After reviewing the bids and inspecting all potential host cities for their venues, amenities, event programs,

and  opportunities, the International Chess Federation selected Singapore for the first time as the host. How did Gukesh qualify for the championship challenge? His rise has been both

extraordinary and meteoric. The Indian resolve, following Vishy Anand’s achievement in securing the World Chess title away from the Russians, to build a national team strong enough to

compete at the topmost echelons of world chess, has come home to roost, probably earlier than expected. Gukesh, as one of the triumvirate of Indian representatives in this recent clash, has

enjoyed an astonishing trajectory  in the game, and it is only right to look at some of his successes. It isno fluke that he came out on top in Toronto. Indeed, notable older players who had

won through to this contest were in contention right up to the wire. Fabiano Caruana (USA) and Ian Nepomniachtchi (Russia), had been two of the top favourites of the older generation to win

the competition. As it happened, either of them could have forced a tie-break if they had won their last game, which coincidentally was against one another. This crucial encounter in fact

ended in a marathon-long draw, where neither could get the better of the other. This draw gave the Indian youngster a winning result for the tournament, with a half-point lead. By qualifying

for a World Title challenge, the young prodigy broke Kasparov’s record of 1984 as the youngest ever challenger. Gukesh’s only loss in Toronto was to the Iranian-French grandmaster Alireza

Firouzja, 21, in round 6. As the teenage underdog, Gukesh collected reams of highly delighted fans as he battled it out with rivals nearly double his age. The lead-up to Gukesh’s dramatic

and historic win at the Candidates tournament was signposted over the interim years, from his formative years starting in 2013 (when he was just seven years old), playing one hour, three

days per week, morphing into playing tournaments at weekends after his chess tutor acknowledged his good performance. Alongside Gukesh’s most recent and significant success in the Candidates

Tournament, he has amassed a string of awards and accolades over his relatively short career that are truly impressive. He showed exemplary prowess, winning many top-flight tournaments. I

now give some of these successes, such as: • he won the under-9 years of age section of the Asian Schools Championship, 2015; • won the World Youth Chess Championships, under-12 category,

2018; • won five gold medals at the 2018 Asian Youth Chess Championships in various categories; • completed requirements and was awarded the title of International Master in March 2017 at

the Cappelle-la-Grande Open; • on 15th January 2019, aged 12 years, 7 months, and 17 days, became the 2nd youngest grandmaster in history (17 days younger than Sergey Karjakin); • in August

2022, at the 44th Chess Olympiad, realised a perfect opening score of 8/8 wins, defeating the USA’s No.1 Fabiano Caruana in the process. He won the Gold Medal for top board for his team

India-2 • in August 2023, became the youngest player ever to reach an ELO rating of 2750; • in September 2023, officially passed Anand as the top-rated Indian player, marking the first time

in 37 years that Anand was not in the top spot . The history of chess as we now know it may be shattered yet again, with Gukesh as the youngest player ever to wear the world crown . Garry

Kasparov hailed Gukesh’s achievement by stating, “an Indian earthquake in Toronto” and, “the children of Vishy Anand are on the loose!” Vishwanathan Anand has mentored many youthful Indian

players and is regarded by them as a great hero . Gukesh now has the greatest chance of beating Kasparov’s record set in 1985, when at the age of 22 years and 185 days he defeated Anatoly

Karpov, becoming the youngest World Champion by just under 4 years . In Hindi-speaking nations, Gukesh means “virtue”. Although the word virtue in modern parlance implies moral qualities,

its actual root is in the Latin word for strength, virtus, personifying the Roman deity of martial strength. Gukesh will certainly need plenty of this, when he faces up to Ding Liren, with

the ghostly presence of ex-Champion Carlsen, hovering over every move .  In the spring of 2023, Magnus Carlsen stepped down from defending his World Championship title and crown in the World

Chess Championship Tournament; but he continues to play in lesser competitions and events. For example, the Fischer Random World Championship finals, 29th October 2022, saw Carlsen up

against one of the World Championship contenders whom he would have faced had he decided to defend his title: Ian Nepomniachtchi (conveniently known as “Nepo”), with a near-World Champion

rating of 2793. After Magnus Carlsen stepped down from defending his World Championship title, many expected that subsequently he would retire from chess. The indications were that he would

only be seen on those stately occasions, when museums and their like, such as the St. Louis Hall of Fame, praise the history of chess, and that his name would be celebrated along with the

other greats, such as Kasparov, Karpov, Fischer, and so on. Instead, he jumped right back into contention, not just by inclusion into world-class tournaments but also by actually winning

them. The World Championship Match will consist of 14 games. The player who scores 7½ points  or more wins the Match, and no further games are played. If the score is equal after 14  games,

the winner is decided by a tiebreak. The Singapore World Chess Championship match prize has been set at $2,000,000, underscoring the differential between male and female prizes in chess . In

both football and chess the discrepancy is astronomic. For example, Alisha Lehmann, a footballer for the Juventus Women’s Team, has spoken out about the pay gap between her and her

boyfriend, Douglas Luiz, who also plays for the Juventus Men’s Team. Luiz earns, “100,000 times more” than Lehmann, as she called out the “unfair” gender pay gap between the pair. The

problem of equality, same job – same pay, some might argue boils down to performance level. In the mind sport of “chess”, female practitioners have failed, with the notable exception of

Judit Polgar, to break through the glass ceiling. Interestingly, in the parallel mind sport of “memory power”, where I have already organised 32 World Memory championships, with the 33rd set

for Istanbul in December,  female contestants are rewarded in fully equal measure to their male counterparts – with no financial discrimination. In fact, the female participants are

performing at the same level, if not better – than their male counterparts . Perhaps in chess, if payment levels were equalised, there would be sufficient incentive for the women to smash

their way to the top . Therefore, I challenge organisers and sponsors to re-think their strategies and first offer equal financial payments to female chess players at tournaments. We feature

two games this week. The first is a reminder of the positional strength and guile of the current World Champion. It is taken from his victory in the contest that brought him the title,

where his two-time challenger had been the favourite, having lost to Carlsen in the previous contest. Computer analysis from the lichess.com website awarded Ding a clean sweep of 0

inaccuracies, 0 mistakes and 0 blunders; summing 98% accuracy – an astonishing precision at this highest level of the Royal Game. DING LIREN VS. IAN NEPOMNIACHTCHI World Championship Match, 

2023, Astana, rd. 4 1. c4 Nf6 2. Nc3 e5 3. Nf3 Nc6 4. e3 Bb4 5. Qc2 Bxc3 6. bxc3 d6 7. e4 O-O 8. Be2 Nh5 9. d4 Nf4 10. Bxf4 exf4 11. O-O! TN A very natural improvement on the 11. h4 played

in a Bundesliga win in 2013 by the elegant Hungarian grandmaster, Richard Rapport against Ilja Zaragatski.. 11… Qf6 12. Rfe1 Re8 13. Bd3 Despite the definitive  lichess  analysis, it could

be argued that either 13. h3 or 13. c5 were superior continuations. 13…   Bg4 14. Nd2 Na5?! Black should prefer 14… Rad8 after which equality is fairly easily accomplished. For example: 15.

h3 Bc8 16. a4 b6 17. Nf3 Qh6 18. e5 dxe5 19. a5 exd4 20. axb6 axb6 21. cxd4 Rf8. 15. c5 dxc5 16. e5 Qh6 17. d5 Rad8 18. c4 b6 19. h3 Bh5 20. Be4 Re7  Of course, 20… Rxe5? is met violently by

 21. Bxh7!   21. Qc3 Rde8 22. Bf3 Nb7 23. Re2 f6 24. e6 Nd6 25. Rae1 Nf5?! Another slight inaccuracy, which restores a slight, yet tangible edge for White. Black should look to his control

of the white squares given his pawn configuration, by playing 25… Bg6. 26. Bxh5 Qxh5 27. Re4 Qh6 28. Qf3 Nd4? A serious error, from which White never permits Black to recover. Necessary is

28… g5! defending f5, permitting a re-entry for the queen and vacating squares for the knight. 29. Rxd4! One can safely say that Black did not see this one coming — a devastating exchange

sacrifice. While it is true to say that Black helps with further inaccuracies after this move, it is also true to state that White never once takes his boot from the throat, in a vicious

demolition. 29… cxd4 30. Nb3 g5 31. Nxd4 Qg6 32. g4 fxg3 33. fxg3 h5 34. Nf5 Rh7 35. Qe4 Kh8 36. e7 Qf7 37. d6 cxd6 38. Nxd6 Qg8 39. Nxe8 Qxe8 40. Qe6 Kg7 41. Rf1 Rh6 42. Rd1 f5 43. Qe5+ Kf7

44. Qxf5+ Rf6 45. Qh7+ Ke6 46. Qg7 Rg6 47. Qf8  Black resigns 1-0 Our second game features an eviscerating assault from quiet waters by Gukesh: a great tactical player at the height of his

powers, yet who is certain to become even more powerful. This game is taken from the Olympiad this year where Gukesh achieved a personal score of 9/10, only conceding draws to Rapport and

Abdusattorov, in an astonishing near-perfect performance. VIGNIR VATNAR STEFANSSON VS. DOMMARAJU GUKESH Budapest Olympiad, 2024, Budapest, rd. 2 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nf3 h6 4. g3 Bb4+ 5.

Bd2 Be7 6. Bg2 O-O 7. O-O d5 8. Qc2 c6 9. Rd1 Nbd7 10. Bf4 a5 11. Nc3 dxc4 12. Nd2 Nd5 13. Nxc4 Nxf4 14. gxf4 Nf6 15. Ne5!? TN A brave new introduction to theory, computer approved. New,

inasmuch as it had not been recorded before at this level; brave, because it sought to improve on 15. e3, a winning move played by Rudik Makarian against the mighty Anish Giri, last year at

the Qatar Masters. 15… Bd7 16. e3 Be8 17. Kh1 Kh8 18. Rg1 Rc8 19. Rad1 Bd6 20. Bf3 Qe7 21. Na4 Rc7 22. Nd3 Qd8 23. Rc1 Nd5 24. a3 f6 25. Qd2 g5 26. Qxa5 Bg6 27. Qd2 Qe8 28. Nac5 Rg7 29. Qe2

Rfg8 30. Rce1 Bb8 31. Qd2 Bh7 32. Qd1 b6 33. Nb3 g4 34. Bg2 Qh5 35. Qd2? A fatal error: White had to redeploy the b3-knight to defend his kingside, as a matter of urgency; for example: 35.

Nbc1 Qh4 36. Ne2 Nxe3 37. fxe3 g3 38. Nxg3 Rxg3 39. Bf3 e5 40. dxe5 fxe5 41. Rxg3 Rxg3 42. Bxc6, when White can rest easy. After the text, White is lost. 35… g3 36. fxg3 Rxg3 37. e4?

Accelerating his demise. 37. Qe2 was the only move, and even then … 37… R8g4 38. Qf2? … ‘All in the valley of Death, rode the …’, you get the picture! (apologies to Tennyson) 38… Nxf4 39.

Nxf4 Bxf4 40. Bf3 Rxf3  And with mate a matter of moves away, White resigns. 0-1   Ray’s 206th book, “  Chess in the Year of the King  ”, written in collaboration with Adam Black, and his

207th, “  Napoleon and Goethe: The Touchstone of Genius  ” (which discusses their relationship with chess) can be ordered from both Amazon and Blackwells. His 208th, the world record for

chess books, written jointly with chess playing artist Barry Martin,  Chess through the Looking Glass , will be available from Amazon before Christmas. A MESSAGE FROM THEARTICLE _We are the

only publication that’s committed to covering every angle. We have an important contribution to make, one that’s needed now more than ever, and we need your help to continue publishing

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