The World Chess Championship 2024 was a chess match between the reigning world champion Ding Liren and the challenger Gukesh Dommaraju to determine the World Chess Champion. The match took place between 25 November and 12 December 2024 in Singapore. It was played to a best of 14 games, with tiebreaks if required. The match was won by Gukesh 7½–6½ after 14 games. The win made Gukesh, at age 18, the youngest undisputed open-category world champion.
Ding Liren won the 2023 World Chess Championship by defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi, after reigning champion Magnus Carlsen declined to defend his title. Gukesh won the eight-player Candidates Tournament held in April 2024 to win the right to challenge Ding for the World Championship. Before the start of the match, Gukesh was ranked fifth in the FIDE rankings with an Elo rating of 2783, while Ding was ranked 23rd with an Elo rating of 2727.
Ding won two games and Gukesh won three. The 14th and final game ended with Gukesh winning the game and match with the black pieces after Ding resigned following a blunder that allowed Gukesh to simplify the position to a winning king and pawn versus king endgame.
Defending champion Ding Liren became World Chess Champion in April 2023, after defeating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the 2023 championship match; Ding had finished second to Nepomniachtchi in the Candidates Tournament 2022, but when reigning champion Magnus Carlsen chose not to defend his title, Ding replaced Carlsen in the 2023 match. After acquiring the title, Ding did not appear in professional tournaments for months, an absence which Ding later revealed in interviews to be due to fatigue and depression. 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 champion title.
Ding's return to chess introduced a rough stretch of form, with a set of poor performances at the 2024 Tata Steel Masters, Norway Chess, and the Grenke Chess Classic. Ding's rating fell from 2788 (at the time of the World Chess Championship 2023) to 2728, while his world ranking fell from world number 3 to world number 23. His poor results led several chess grandmasters to express concern about Ding's overall ability to defend his world championship title, notably Fabiano Caruana, Magnus Carlsen and Hikaru Nakamura. However, while acknowledging Ding's weakened physical condition during the 2024 Sinquefield Cup, Anish Giri highlighted Ding's improved chess level during the first half of the tournament. Ding's opponent in the 2023 match, Ian Nepomniachtchi, also remarked on Caruana's podcast that Ding would be a clear favorite if he were in prime form.
Reflecting on his poor form in an interview during the 45th Chess Olympiad, Ding admitted that Gukesh is "playing extremely well in this tournament. Maybe he is a favorite in the World Championship Match. He also has a higher rating than me". Ding also remarked "[I have] dropped a lot since last year, but I will fight my best to try to overcome the rating difference".
Candidates Tournament
The challenger, Gukesh Dommaraju, qualified by winning the Candidates Tournament 2024 in Toronto, Canada, which was an eight-player double round-robin tournament. It took place from April 3 to April 22, 2024. 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.
The eight players who competed were:
Qualification method Player Age Rating Worldranking(April 2024)2023 World Championship runner-up Ian Nepomniachtchi27587The top three finishers in the Chess World Cup 2023 Magnus Carlsen 2830 1 R Praggnanandhaa 274714 Fabiano Caruana 28032 Nijat Abasov 2632114The top two finishers in the FIDE Grand Swiss Tournament 2023 Vidit Gujrathi 272725 Hikaru Nakamura 27893Highest place in the 2023 FIDE Circuit not already qualified Gukesh Dommaraju 274316Highest rating for January 2024 not already qualified Alireza Firouzja27606
Results
Championship match
Organisation Bids were originally to be presented to FIDE no later than 31 May 2024. Preliminary interest was expressed in early 2024 by Argentina, India, and Singapore.
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. 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. Ultimately, the Singapore Chess Federation revealed that the Equarius Hotel at Resorts World Sentosa was chosen as the venue to host the world championship match. The main sponsor of the event was Google.
The prize fund allocated for the event was 2.5 million. Each player received 200,000 for each game won (including forfeits), and the remainder of the money was split equally. If there was a tiebreak, however, the winner would receive 1.3 million and the loser would receive 1.2 million. That would also have been the distribution if the final score was 7½–6½ with 13 decisive games or 8–6 with 14 decisive games.
The first move of each classical game was ceremonially performed by guests invited by the organizers:
Game Guest 1 Demis Hassabis Co-founder of Google DeepMind and 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry winner 2Tan Lian Ann Singaporean chess master Lim Kok Ann Singaporean chess player and microbiologist 3 Olivier Lim Chairman of the Singapore Tourism Board 4Xie Jun Women's World Chess Champion (1991–1996; 1999–2001) Deputy President of FIDE and World Chess Champion (FIDE split title 2000–2002; undisputed champion 2007–2013)5K. ShanmugamMinister for Home Affairs and Minister for Law of Singapore6Scott BeaumontPresident of Google's operations in the Asia–Pacific region7Edwin TongMinister for Culture, Community and Youth and Second Minister for Law of Singapore 8Kingston Kwek Singaporean entrepreneur Singaporean chess grandmaster and CEO of the Singapore Chess Federation9Shilpak AmbuleHigh Commissioner of India to Singapore 10 Kon Yin Tong Chairman of Sport Singapore 11 Eugene Torre Filipino chess grandmaster Hou Yifan Women's World Chess Champion (2010–2012; 2013–2015; 2016–2017) and second highest-rated female player in history12Zhu JingChargé d'affaires ad interim of the Chinese Embassy in Singapore13 Arkady Dvorkovich President of FIDE14 Hsu Li Yang President of the Singapore Chess Federation
Match regulations The regulations and format of the match were slightly different from the 2023 edition.Regulations for the FIDE World Championship Match 2024 , FIDE, 2024
The time control for each game in the classical portion of the match was 120 minutes per side for the first 40 moves and 30 minutes for the rest of the game, with a 30-second increment per move starting from move 41.
The match was a best of 14 games; a score of at least 7½ won the world championship. If the score was equal after 14 games, tiebreak games with faster time controls would be played:
A match consisting of 4 rapid games with 15 minutes per side and a 10-second increment starting with move 1 would be played. If a player scored 2½ points or more, he would win the championship. If the score was still equal, a mini-match of two rapid games would be played, with 10 minutes per side and a 5-second increment starting with move 1. If a player scored 1½ points or more, he would win the championship. If the score was equal after the rapid portion, a mini-match of two blitz games would be played, with a time control of 3 minutes per side and a 2-second increment starting with move 1. If a player scored 1½ points or more, he would win the championship. A drawing of lots would take place before each mini-match to decide which player played with the white pieces. If the blitz mini-match was tied, a single blitz game with a time control of 3 minutes per side and a 2-second increment starting with move 1 would be played, and the winner would win the championship. A drawing of lots would decide which player played with the white pieces. If this game was drawn, another blitz game with reversed colors would be played with the same time control, and the winner would win the championship. This process would be repeated until either player won a game.
Players were not allowed to agree to a draw before Black's 40th move. A draw claim before then was only permitted if a threefold repetition or stalemate had occurred.
Previous head-to-head record
Prior to the match, Ding and Gukesh had played against each other three times in classical time controls. Ding won two games with the black pieces during the 2023 and 2024 editions of the Tata Steel Chess Tournament, while their most recent pre-championship game during the 2024 Sinquefield Cup resulted in a draw.
+Head-to-head recordDing winsDrawGukesh winsTotalClassicalDing (White) – Gukesh (Black)0101Gukesh (White) – Ding (Black)2002Total2103Blitz / rapid / exhibition0112Total2215
A poll of various grandmasters before the match began found Gukesh a substantial favorite, mainly because of Ding's poor form over the past couple of months. In an October 2024 interview, Gukesh commented that he generally did not "believe in predictions and who are the favorites", and stated that he tried to "be at [his] best every day and play a good game".
Seconds Before the match, Gukesh specified that he was working with Grzegorz Gajewski, who was also his during the 2024 Candidates Tournament. After the match, Gukesh revealed further seconds that supported him before and during the match. Cricket coach Paddy Upton was on Gukesh's team as a mental conditioning coach. Ding Liren was working with Richárd Rapport, who was also his main second in the 2023 championship, and Ni Hua.
Schedule The games began at 17:00 local time (SGT), which is 14:30 (IST) & 09:00 UTC.
Colors were drawn at the opening ceremony. Gukesh received the white pieces for the first game. Colors alternated thereafter, with no switching at the halfway point.
Date Event Saturday, 23 November Media day, opening ceremony, and technical meeting Sunday, 24 November Rest day Monday, 25 November Game 1 Tuesday, 26 November Game 2 Wednesday, 27 November Game 3 Thursday, 28 November Rest day Friday, 29 November Game 4 Saturday, 30 November Game 5 Sunday, 1 December Game 6 Monday, 2 December Rest day Tuesday, 3 December Game 7 Wednesday, 4 December Game 8 Thursday, 5 December Game 9 Friday, 6 December Rest day Saturday, 7 December Game 10 Sunday, 8 December Game 11 Monday, 9 December Game 12 Tuesday, 10 December Rest day Wednesday, 11 December Game 13 Thursday, 12 December Game 14 Friday, 13 December Closing ceremony
Tie-breaks were initially scheduled for 13 December, in which case the closing ceremony would have been held on 14 December. Since tie-breaks proved unnecessary, the closing ceremony was moved ahead to 13 December. There were likewise plans to move it forward if the match had concluded in less than fourteen games.
Results +World Chess Championship 2024Rating Match games Points 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 27830½1½ ½½½½ ½½ 10½1 7½ 27281½0½½½½½½ ½0 1½0 6½
Classical games
Game 1: Gukesh–Ding, 0–1