 "Will D Gukesh vs Ding Liren Chess World Championship match be a walkover for the Indian Grandmaster?")
Chess world champion Ding Liren is sure to find it tough to defend his title against Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh when the World Chess Championship match begins in November. Only 18, Gukesh lacks experience as compared to Chinese Grandmaster Liren, the highest-rated chess player in the history of his country, but not form. In the FIDE ranking, India’s Gukesh is eighth with a rating of 2764, while Liren (2736) is 15th.
The latest setback for Liren in what is turning out to be a poor year was the 45th Chess Olympiad where Gukesh led India to a gold medal win in the Open section while Liren-led China missed out on a medal. The same Liren had led China to team gold in 2014 and 2018 and had also won individual bronze and gold in 2014 and 2018 respectively.
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At the 45th Chess Olympiad in 2024 at Budapest, all the success was reserved for Gukesh as the Indian won the gold on Board 1 with the tournament’s best rating performance of 3056. Gukesh also won individual gold on Board 1 in 2022 when India won the bronze medal.
Liren didn’t have a poor Chess Olympiad but his performance of seven draws and one loss did not match his standards. His Chess Olympiad campaign saw him lose to Vietnam Grandmaster Le Quang Liem as China lost a valuable point in the tournament and a draw against USA Grandmaster Fabiano Caruana in the final round saw China lose the podium spot.
Impact Shorts
More ShortsIn fact Liren has now not won a classical match since beating Dutch chess grandmaster Max Warmerdam in January this year.
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The Chess World Championship match will include 14 classical games and will be held in November-December in Resorts World Sentosa in Singapore.
Gukesh has had no such problem and has been in top form, winning the 2024 Candidates Tournament at the age of 17 in April 2024. He is the youngest chess player ever to win the FIDE Candidates tournament.
At the Chess Olympiad, Gukesh won a whopping eight matches out of 10 and drew two.
His biggest moral victory over Ding Liren was during India vs China contest when the Chinese team rested Liren , presumably to preserve the world champion’s energy before the main clash. If anything, it’s a clear signal that Gukesh enters the World Chess Championship match as the clear favourite.
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