2024 Ding Liren - Gukesh, First Week

After last week's final pre-match post, 2024 Ding Liren - Gukesh, the Players (November 2024), the long-awaited title match between two Asian players finally started. It's expected to take at least three weeks, possibly four, to complete, so I'll follow the same format I used for the previous match, documented in 2023 Ding Liren - Nepomniachtchi, Wrapup (May 2023; NB: fide.com links no longer work).

The 'First Week' report (April 2023) for the Ding - Nepo match mentioned, 'Here are the game reports on Fide.com, both signed Milan Dinic'. We find the same writer for the first two pre-match articles in a series on the careers of the two players:-

• 2024-10-26: Chess king from China who defies the odds (worldchampionship.fide.com)
• 2024-10-28: From a school in Chennai to the World Championship match in Singapore (ditto)
• 2024-11-11: Gukesh Dommaraju: "I just want to enjoy the experience" (ditto; author?)
• 2024-11-13: Ding Liren ahead of his World Championship showdown with Gukesh: "A match is a match" (ditto; author?)

The report on the opening ceremony -- as well as subsequent reports for each of the games -- was signed 'IM Michael Rahal':-

• 2024-11-23: 2024 FIDE World Championship: Gukesh draws White in the first game (ditto, as are the following links)

Although Gukesh had White in the first game, Ding Liren won.

• 2024-11-25: Ding Liren takes down Gukesh in Game 1
• 2024-11-26: Gukesh: Today was a good day!

After the first two games, the score was 1.5-0.5 in Ding Liren's favor.

'Game 1 after 40 moves'
Photo: FIDE / Maria Emelianova

2024 Ding Liren - Gukesh, the Players

The first World Championship match between two Asian players -- both representing Asian powerhouses, chess and otherwise -- starts in a week. What can we say about the players? On this blog I featured Ding Liren in:-

• 2022-07-20: An Accidental Challenger • 'Ding Liren's participation [in a World Championship match] is about as accidental as things get in the real world.'

On my main blog I followed this some time later with a short series:-

• 2023-03-17: Ding Liren's Climb to a Title Match • 'Before past title matches I've used a few posts to learn something about [the] challenger for a particular match.'
• 2023-03-24: Ding Liren's TWIC Debut
• 2023-03-31: Ding Liren's Rise to the GM title
• 2023-04-07: Ding Liren's 2010-11 TWIC-ipedia
• 2023-04-14: Ding Liren's 2022 Candidates

I'll start a similar series for Gukesh in a few days. In the meantime, here's a comparison of the players' rating progress over the last five years. The following composite chart is from FIDE's 'Rating Progress Chart' showing the last five years for both players. For the full view of the same players, see:-

• Ding Liren (ratings.fide.com)
• Gukesh D (ditto)

X-axis: 2020-Jan to 2024-Dec
Y-axis: Ding Liren 2840-2720; Gukesh 2800-1900

The first part of the chart coincides with the covid-19 pandemic that prevented many chess tournaments from taking place. Since then Ding's rating has been in a downtrend, Gukesh's rating in an uptrend. That's one reason why so many pundits favor Gukesh to win the match.

The Next Cycle

In the previous post, 2024 Ding Liren - Gukesh, Warmup (November 2024), I emerged from a state of suspended animation and brought the blog up-to-date for the current cycle:-

In the nearly six months since my previous post on this blog, Toronto Candidates - Wrapup (June 2024), world class chess has moved from the end of a Candidates tournament to the start of a World Championship match.

For this post I updated my two main index pages. Both pages are now showing a second cycle with links to Wikipedia instead of to my own material:-

• World Chess Championship
• World Chess Championship for Women

A big difference between the two cycles is that the World Championship allocates two Candidate spots to the FIDE Circuit - one for the year 2024 and one for the year 2025. The Women's Championship allocates two spots to the 2024-25 Women's Grand Prix.

Another difference is that the World Championship allocates one spot for highest rating. The Women's Championship allocates one spot to 'FIDE Women’s Events 2025-26' (NB: events from 2024-25), which uses a point system to combine results from eight top women's tournaments.

2024 Ding Liren - Gukesh, Warmup

In the nearly six months since my previous post on this blog, Toronto Candidates - Wrapup (June 2024), world class chess has moved from the end of a Candidates tournament to the start of a World Championship match.

For more info about the match and to follow the games, see:-

• Official site: FIDE World Chess Championship Singapore 2024
• Current Local Time in Singapore

Here are links to Fide.com news announcements during the months leading up to the match:-

• 2024-04-22: Gukesh D and Tan Zhongyi are World Championship Challengers
• 2024-04-27: FIDE World Championship Match 2024 - Call for bids
• 2024-07-01: Singapore to host 2024 World Chess Championship Match
• 2024-08-15: FIDE World Championship Match to be held in Singapore at Resorts World Sentosa
• 2024-09-02: FIDE World Championship Match 2024 Regulations announced
• 2024-09-12: Google announced as Title Sponsor of World Chess Championship 2024
• 2024-10-03: Tickets for FIDE World Chess Championship Match 2024 are now on sale!
• 2024-10-27: From a school in Chennai to the World Championship match in Singapore

The 'Schedule' on the official site says the first game starts 25 November with the following rhythm:-

The schedule of the World Championship match takes place over 3 weeks, with 14 match days and 4 rest days planned. All games start at 17:00 local time (GMT+8), and there are rest days after Games 3, 6, 9 and 12. The first player to reach 7.5 points will be the winner; in the case of a tie after 14 games, tiebreaks will be played the next day to decide the winner.

For equivalent posts on this blog for the two most recent title matches, see:-

• 2021 Carlsen - Nepomniachtchi, Warmup (November 2021)
• 2023 Nepomniachtchi - Ding Liren, Warmup (March 2023)

For previous games between the two players, see Ding Liren vs. Dommaraju Gukesh (chessgames.com). Gukesh appears to be the odds-on favorite for the 2024 match, but throughout his career Ding Liren has consistently outperformed expectations.