Chessable First Opening Repertoire

FIDE World Chess Championship 2024 (Games and Results)

FIDE World Chess Championship 2024

Gukesh celebrates winning the title. Photo © FIDE

Gukesh celebrates winning the title. Photo © FIDE | https://worldchampionship.fide.com/

The FIDE World Chess Championship took place in Singapore Mon 25th Nov to Fri 13th Dec 2024. Defending champion was 32 year old Ding Liren who won the title against Ian Nepomniachtchi in April 2023. The Challenger was 18 year old Gukesh Dommaraju who won the right to play the match after winning the Candidates tournament earlier in the year.

Much was made of the poor form of Ding Liren who had admitted to depression but he played better than anyone had any right to expect. Ding won the first game but the match was soon level again after Gukesh won game 3.

There were then seven draws in a row before Gukesh won a fluctuating struggle in game 11 where Ding stood well before losing the advantage and eventually blundering the position away in time trouble. Ding then won probably the best game of the match when he completely outplayed Gukesh in game 12. Game 13 was drawn before the final decisive game 14. Ding had white in the final game, didn't get an advantage and in fact then chose to play into a very drawish but inferior endgame. Of course he should have held this endgame and the blunder he made that allowed Gukesh to win was really very simple but I think the whole way he tried to secure the draw was psychologically wrong and I wasn't impressed even as I expected the game to be drawn. Gukesh has had a tremendous year, clumninating in this win. He finishes the year rated at number 5 in the world, he will be able to afford the kind of team only a world champion can afford from now on, the capture of the number one spot in the rating list will no doubt be the next target. He is the youngest ever world champion at 18 and there's clear room for improvement, some of the weaker parts of his game were exposed a bit in this match, but even just playing this match probably improved Gukesh as a player. My feeling is that Ding won't be too disappointed. He did put up a very decent defence of his title, far better than most predicted. The way it finished was a bit odd but was more a product of the sustained pressure of the match than that single moment, also he did have some lucky escapes in other games. The title clearly didn't suit Ding and honestly we need a better champion for the game as a matter of urgency now. Ding said he's likely to follow the Carlsen model of less classical and more rapid and blitz, I think that's a bit of a pity but hopefully we'll see him back to his best.

Gukesh is the new World Chess Champion after Ding makes an extraordinarily simple blunder (14)

18 year old Gukesh Dommaraju became the youngest World Champion after defeating Ding Liren in the 14th and final game of the World Championship in Singapore. Just as we were preparing for a rapid tie-break on Friday Gukesh was the recipient of a gift of a whole point in the final game when a draw should have been well within Ding's capabilities. Ding only has himself to blame as he didn't even have be in a drawish endgame as awkward as this.

Ding tried 1.Nf3 and 2.g3 and Gukesh surprised him with a very rare variation. The game followed the course of many others where the positions were a bit murky and hard to judge, even if there wasn't much in them. 19.Bxd4 would have been much better than 19.cxb5?! and after 25...b4 black had full equality. 26.a4 was in my view very much too cooperative, its idea was to trade into an inferior but drawn endgame like in game 13. But there was always going to be much more suffering involved today. The Russians always talk about having a "two result position" where you can play for a win without ever having to worry about defeat and this is what Ding signed up for the wrong side of. What he overlooked in the end was shocking in its triviality. He agreed to swap rooks apparently without noting that black would also be able to force the bishops off too and have a winning king and pawn endgame. It apparently took quite some time for Ding to realise what he had done, Gukesh obviously realised first and he was clearly very shocked. The drawing margin for error was still huge when the error happened.

How can one explain such a blunder? Two days of defending bad endgames? Already thinking about the tie-breaks? Just the stress and strain of these matches? Possibly some if not all of these.

All things considered Ding gave a pretty good account of himself in the match as a whole but is clearly a pale shadow of his former self. I really hope he can put this game and indeed the last years behind him and resume a normal chess career. I thought before and during this match it had come a year too early for Gukesh. He now has the title, will have learned a lot from this and will continue to mature, both with chess experience but also physically. Gukesh's future is not yet set, a long champion like Kasparov and Carlsen? Or a one term like Ding? With his chess clearly not yet in its final form, nobody can guess. This was a decent, if not classic, match which told us quite a lot about where classical chess is in 2024. Players are looking to get their opponents into unfamiliar positions, there was none of the 30 move deep opening prep we saw a decade and more ago. We have a worthy champion, what will he do with the title? Like it or not the World Champion is looked to as a leader of the game, and Ding did not choose to fulfill that role, this is likely to change.

Final score: Gukesh 7.5-6.5 Ding Liren

FIDE World Chess Championship 2024 (14)

The moment both players start to realise Ding has blundered the match away. Photo ©

The moment both players start to realise Ding has blundered the match away. Photo © | https://worldchampionship.fide.com

World Chess Championship 2024 (Singapore SIN)
Mon 25th Nov 2024 - Fri 13th Dec 2024 - Official Site

WCh 2024 (2 players 14 Rds Match Indiv TC:120m:30m+30spm(41)) - Games in PGN: Games

WCh 2024 (2 players 14 Rds Match Indiv TC: 120m:30m+30spm(41)) - Games in PGN: Games

vs

ChessTempo viewer

WCh Singapore SIN
Gukesh, D - Ding, Liren 0-1 42 C11 French Defence
Ding, Liren - Gukesh, D ½-½ 23 C50 Giuoco Piano
Gukesh, D - Ding, Liren 1-0 37 D02 Queen's Pawn Game
Ding, Liren - Gukesh, D ½-½ 42 A06 Zukertort Opening
Gukesh, D - Ding, Liren ½-½ 40 C01 French Exchange
Ding, Liren - Gukesh, D ½-½ 46 A45 Trompowsky
Gukesh, D - Ding, Liren ½-½ 72 D78 Gruenfeld 3.g3
Ding, Liren - Gukesh, D ½-½ 51 A21 English Opening
Gukesh, D - Ding, Liren ½-½ 54 E00 Catalan
Ding, Liren - Gukesh, D ½-½ 36 D02 Queen's Pawn Game
Gukesh, D - Ding, Liren 1-0 29 A09 Reti Opening
Ding, Liren - Gukesh, D 1-0 39 A13 Reti Opening
Gukesh, D - Ding, Liren ½-½ 68 C11 French Defence
Ding, Liren - Gukesh, D 0-1 58 A08 Barcza System

WCh Singapore (SIN), 25xi-13 xii 2024
Name Ti NAT Rtng 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 Total Perf
Gukesh, D g IND 2783 0 ½ 1 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 1 0 ½ 1 2757
Ding, Liren g CHN 2728 1 ½ 0 ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ ½ 0 1 ½ 0 2754

Advertising

New in Chess Magazine 2025 Offer


Chess.com Events


Chess and Bridge CB 18

Modern Chess Jobava London


Lessons on Uncompromising Play

Contact Mark Crowther (TWIC) if you wish to advertise here.


The Week in Chess Magazine

Send a £30 donation via Paypal and contact me via email (Email Mark Crowther - mdcrowth@btinternet.com) I'll send you an address for a cbv file of my personal copy of every issue of the games in one database. Over 4 million games.

Alternatively subscribe to donate £4 a month

Read about 25 years of TWIC.

TWIC 1572 23rd December 2024 - 10167 games

Read TWIC 1572

Download TWIC 1572 PGN

Download TWIC 1572 ChessBase

TWIC Sponsors:

Clark St James Ltd - online advertising agency eg Google AdWords, Facebook Ads, LinkedIn Ads

The Doctor.