Indian chess grandmaster Gukesh Dommaraju will be challenging the reigning World Champion Ding Liren of China in the FIDE World Championship match from November 25 to December 13 in Singapore.
Though Ding has won the championship already defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in rapid tiebreaks last year. However, he has not been in the same form this year in the classic format.
Grandmasters Pravin Thipsay and Abhijit Kunte feel Gukesh is the clear favourite to win the World Championship match. Many like Ding have won the Championship in their first attempt and Gukesh will have dash at history to become the youngest World Champion ever.
“He impresssed me with his intellect and maturity three years ago when he was competing in the Masters event. He doesn’t make mistakes at all. He won the Candidates, helped India to win the Chess Olympiad and is in top form going into the world title match. To me, he is the clear favourite,” said Thipsay at a symposium of two GMs, organised by the The Sports Journalists’ Association of Mumbai (SJAM) at MIG Club, Bandra East on Tuesday.
“I think Gukesh will win by round 12,” Kunte added to Thipsay comment of, “We will not see a 12th game.”
Gukesh has been touted as the favourite by former World Champions like Garry Kasparov and Levon Aronian. The 18-year-old is ranked fifth in the International Chess Federation with 2783 rating points. Recently Erigaisi Arjun has become the top ranked Indian at fourth with 2799 points. However, Gukesh has been focusing on this match after creating history at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.
Ding has been out of action, faced some self doubt issues, which has led to drop in rankings and currently placed at 23 with 2728 ranking points. “He is the World champion but right now he is in Ding 2 era which is not very strong. But if you see Ding 1 era, it was very difficult to beat him. I hope the magnitude of the contest doesn’t bring back the Ding era 1,” cautioned Kunte.
The contest has lost little bit of sheen as many legends like Kasparov feel the game can’t be labelled as the World Championship match as World No 1 Magnus Carslen isn’t playing. Also the Top 4 ranked players are not part of the contest. “To be respected as a World Champion you have do well in the following year and win tournaments but Ding hasn’t been able to build on his world title. However, Gukesh has already earned that respect by winning Candidates (at the youngest age of 17), helping India to win (45th) Chess Olympiad and I am sure he will earn more respect after the world title.”
There will be 14 games; a score of at least 7½ would win the world championship. If both are level on points then the winner will be declared through a rapid tie-breaker. “In the tie-breaker, Ding has more experience and he will have advantage,” Kunte said.
