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World Chess Championship: Singapore to host Ding vs Gukesh
Delhi and Chennai were in the fray as well, Fide however decided to go with the only neutral venue in the mix
Singapore will host the World Chess Championship match between Ding Liren and D Gukesh later this year, International chess federation, Fide announced. Two Indian cities – Delhi and Chennai were in the running as well and had submitted competing bids for the match. While Delhi was proposed by the All India Chess Federation, the Tamil Nadu government sent in an independent bid, offering to host the match in Chennai. Fide however decided to go with Singapore – the only neutral venue in the mix.
“Neutrality was clearly a major factor,” Fide CEO Emil Sutovsky told HT, “Also it was important for us to bring the Fide flagship event to a new region. But it has to be said, all this would not work if the Singapore bid was not good enough. But it was very strong.” This will be only the second time that the World Championship will be held in South-East Asia. Baguio, Philippines had hosted the ill-tempered 1978 match between Anatoly Karpov and Viktor Korchnoi.
Asked if the players were consulted on their venue preference, Sutovsky said, “The players were not asked, but Ding did express his preference for Singapore. However, even prior to it, a neutral venue was designated as one of the major factors.”
Singapore – a multicultural, diverse, bustling metropolis – is home to a sizeable Chinese and Indian-origin population. The island state has lately had a wave of young chess talents, many of them of Indian origin, making the news. In February this year, eight-year old Ashwath Kaushik became the youngest player ever to defeat a Grandmaster in classical chess.
In May, another Indian origin player, 17-year-old Siddharth Jagadeesh became Singapore’s youngest Grandmaster. The number of people taking an interest in chess is understood to have risen sharply in the country following the pandemic. In April last year, the Singapore Chess Federation rolled out the national training programme to nurture the country’s next generation of chess talent.
Unlike Singapore, both the Indian bidding venues, Tamil Nadu and Delhi have hosted the World Championship previously. Tamil Nadu played host to the Viswananthan Anand-Magnus Carlsen match in 2013 and the also Olympiad, more recently in 2022, while the first half of the World Championship in 2000 was held in Delhi. The final half was played in Tehran where Viswanathan Anand became world champion for the first time. AICF had proposed Bharat Mandapam, the venue of the 2023 G20 Summit in New Delhi, as venue. “We will obviously look at India to host major Fide events. There is already a pretty concrete discussion ongoing about one of our major events in 2025.”
Playing a high-stakes tournament like the World Championship at home comes with crushing pressure, as well as intense media attention and frenzy. One that Gukesh perhaps might do well without. He had a handy preview of what it might look like after he returned home following his Candidates win. For the 2020 World Championship match (which was held in 2021 due to the pandemic), Magnus Carlsen’s reluctance to play at home had Stavanger, Norway opt out of the bidding process. They had already secured a funding of $3.5 million but Carlsen, remaining firm on his stance, forced them to drop plans.
India hasn’t had a world champion since Anand won the title five times. His reign came to an end in 2013 against Carlsen in Chennai. The match was hosted at home at possibly the worst-ever juncture of Anand’s career. He was already battling a slump and mental demons and having to do so before throngs of people in his home city with the focus and cameras resting on him, seemed torturous.
The 14-game match between Ding and Gukesh, which boasts a prize fund of $2.5 million, is set to take place between November 20 and December 15. According to Fide, four venues in Singapore are being considered and a decision will be made soon.
With Ding Liren not playing his best chess at the moment, 18-year old Gukesh is considered to be in good reckoning to end the wait and break Garry Kasparov’s record to become the youngest-ever world champion.
