After all the buildup, it’s finally here. The youngest challenger a chess World Championship has seen is up against it as he takes on one of the best players the game has seen over the past decade, Ding Liren. But can India’s Dommaraju Gukesh really do it?
We’ll know soon enough, because it’s time for D Gukesh vs Ding Liren. The long, long World Championship starts today, at 2.30 PM when they get match 1 underway, with Gukesh playing with white.
Now, ahead of the match Liren may have downplayed his chances and the contrasts between his and Gukesh’ demeanour was quite distinct, but no one becomes champion of the world without being exceptional at what they do. And Ding is just that. Another young Indian grandmaster, R Praggnanandhaa might have told ESPN’s Aaditya Narayan that playing with white first up gives Gukesh an advantage, but when it comes to this big a stage things are not as black and white as the young superstar chess players of India have experienced before.
The head-to-head doesn’t favour young Gukesh (as you’d expect considering his age) with Ding having won twice and drawn once in three classical matches, but as the FIDE Candidates and the Chess Olympiad showed rather emphatically, Gukesh is a player who improves with every passing day.
Join us here for the full coverage of this match that promises to be an absolute belter. Aaditya is in Singapore and he’ll help us make sure you have the complete experience with a healthy dose of the sights and sounds straight from the venue. The live blog will appear right below this:
