The World Championship

The World Championship match between Ding Liren and Dommaraju Gukesh is now underway in Singapore. The $2.5 million prize fund will be decided over 14 games of classical chess, and in the event of a 7-7 tie, there will be rapid tiebreaks on 13 December.

Pre-match consensus had Ding, the reigning champion from China, as a heavy underdog, with only around a 20 per cent chance of victory. He has appeared afflicted by a psychological crisis since winning the title last year, and his recent form has been dismal. His challenger, 18-year-old Gukesh from India, has had a splendid run, climbing well above Ding in the world rankings.

The former world champion Vishy Anand tried to dial down the hype with a pithy warning: ‘[Gukesh] is smart enough to know that World Championships are won, not elected’. Indeed, by winning with black in the first game of the match, Ding proved that he remains a worthy contender for the title. As we go to press, a draw in the second game leaves him 1.5-0.5 ahead.

Magnus Carlsen, still rated the world no. 1 player by a healthy margin, rarely plays classical events these days, preferring rapid and blitz time controls. But he has become a strong advocate for ‘Freestyle Chess’, in which pieces on the back row are shuffled in one of 960 configurations at the start of the game. To promote a forthcoming series of elite Freestyle events, Carlsen faced the world no. 2 Fabiano Caruana in a two-game Freestyle match in Singapore, just days before the start of the real World Championship.

The game below had as its start position: Na1, Nb1, Bc1, Rd1, Ke1, Rf1, Qg1, Bh1. Black’s setup mirrors that: Na8, Nb8, Bc8, etc.