Header: | World Chess Championship 2024 |
Dates: | 23 November – 15 December 2024 |
Location: | Resorts World Sentosa, Singapore |
Comp1: | Ding Liren |
Comp2: | Gukesh D |
Title1: | Defending champion |
Title2: | Challenger |
Flag1: | CHN |
Flag2: | IND |
Dob1: | 24 October 1992 |
Age1: | 32 years old |
Dob2: | 29 May 2006 |
Age2: | 18 years old |
Qual1: | Winner of the World Chess Championship 2023 |
Qual2: | Winner of the Candidates Tournament 2024 |
Prev: | 2023 |
Prev Link: | World Chess Championship 2023 |
Next: | 2026 |
Next Link: | World Chess Championship 2026 |
The World Chess Championship 2024 will be a match between the reigning world champion Ding Liren and the challenger Gukesh D to determine the World Chess Champion, taking place between 23 November and 15 December 2024, with Singapore hosting the match. It will be played to a best of 14 games, with tiebreaks if required.[1]
Ding Liren became World Chess Champion in April 2023, after defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 championship match. After acquiring the title, Ding did not appear in professional tournaments for months, an absence which was later revealed to be due to an unspecified illness.[2] Ding withdrew from tournaments including the 2023 Asian Games and did not enter the first four events of the 2024 Grand Chess Tour. He returned to classical chess in January 2024 at the 2024 Tata Steel Chess Tournament and announced that he still intended to defend his world title.[3]
See main article: Candidates Tournament 2024. The challenger, Gukesh D, qualified by winning the Candidates Tournament 2024 in Toronto, Canada, which was an eight-player double round-robin tournament.[4] [5] It took place from April 3 to April 22, 2024.[6] [7] Fabiano Caruana won the 2023 FIDE Circuit, but had already qualified for the Candidates through the Chess World Cup 2023. Hence, Gukesh qualified for the Candidates via the FIDE Circuit, after overtaking Anish Giri with a win at the Chennai Grand Masters tournament.[8]
The eight players who competed were:[9] [10] [11]
Qualification method | Player | Age | Rating | World ranking | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
(April 2024) | ||||||||
2023 World Championship runner-up | Ian Nepomniachtchi | 2758 | 7 | |||||
The top three finishers in the Chess World Cup 2023 | bgcolor=lightgray | | bgcolor=lightgray | bgcolor=lightgray | 2830 | bgcolor=lightgray | 1 | |
2747 | 14 | |||||||
2803 | 2 | |||||||
2632 | 114 | |||||||
The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2023 | 2727 | 25 | ||||||
2789 | 3 | |||||||
Highest place in the 2023 FIDE Circuit not already qualified | 2743 | 16 | ||||||
Highest rating for January 2024 not already qualified | Alireza Firouzja | 2760 | 6 |
The regulations and format of the world championship remain the same of that in the 2023 edition.
The time control for each game in the classical portion of the match is 120 minutes per side for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, and 15 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting with move 61.
The match will be best of 14 games; a score of at least 7½ would win the world championship. If the score is equal after 14 games, tiebreak games with faster time controls will be played:
Players are not allowed to agree to a draw before Black's 40th move. A draw claim before then is only permitted if a threefold repetition or stalemate has occurred.[12]
Prior to the match, Ding and Gukesh have played thrice against each other at classical time controls. Ding won two games with the black pieces during the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament,[13] [14] whilst their most recent pre-championship game during the 2024 Sinquefield Cup resulted in a draw.[15]
Classical | Ding (white) – Gukesh (black) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Gukesh (white) – Ding (black) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | ||
Total | 2 | 1 | 0 | 3 | ||
Blitz / rapid / exhibition | 0 | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||
Total | 2 | 2 | 1 | 5 |
Bids were originally to be presented to FIDE no later than 31 May 2024.[16] Early interest was expressed in June 2023 by Argentina, India, and Singapore.[17]
In June 2024, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky announced that FIDE had received three bids to host the championship, two from India (Chennai and New Delhi), and one from Singapore.[18] [19] In July 2024, FIDE announced that the match would take place in Singapore from 20 November to 15 December 2024, with four venues being considered.[20] [21] Ultimately, the Singapore Chess Federation revealed that Resorts World Sentosa was chosen as the venue to host the world championship match.[22]
The prize fund allocated for the event is 2.5 million, split 60% vs. 40% between winner and loser. If the match is tied after 14 classical games, the prize fund will be split 55% vs. 45% in favor of the tiebreak winner.[23]