World Chess Championship: Gukesh and Ding to battle at Resorts World Sentosa

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Bengaluru: The FIDE World Chess Championship match between reigning world champion Ding Liren and his 18-year-old Indian challenger D Gukesh will take place at Resorts World Sentosa, on Sentosa island, off the southern coast of Singapore. The November 23-December 15 match will be played in South-east Asia for only the second time in its 138-year history. The earlier instance was the ill-tempered duel between Viktor Korchnoi and Anatoly Karpov in Baguio, Philippines, in 1978.

Touted as Singapore’s first integrated resort spanning an area of over 49 hectares, RWS houses Universal Studios, marine theme parks and a casino, apart from luxury hotels. In July, Singapore beat two competing Indian bids — New Delhi, by the All India Chess Federation, and Chennai, submitted by the Tamil Nadu state government, to win the right to host the $2.5 million Ding-Gukesh match.

Gukesh, the youngest-ever challenger, and Ding are set to face each other soon at the Sinquefield Cup in St Louis. Should Gukesh win the match against the Chinese GM later this year, he will become the youngest-ever world champion.

In conjunction with the World Championship match, Singapore Chess Federation has announced that they will be organising a few side events. A top-level Open event — Singapore International Open — will take place between November 29-December 5, with a total prize fund of S$100,000 across Masters and Challengers sections. “It’s amazing that I will not only be able to witness the World Championship match up close but also compete in a strong international tournament in my own country,” said 17-year-old Siddharth Jagadeesh, Singapore’s youngest-ever Grandmaster. The Singapore national age-group championship will take place between November 24-28.

“More than anything else, we don’t want the match to end early!” Kevin Goh, Singapore Chess Federation CEO and chair of the local organising committee, had told HT earlier. “There’s hope that a match of this magnitude can accelerate the growth of chess in Singapore. We can think back to the Fischer-Spassky match and how chess in Iceland has grown since. Of course, you can’t take that sort of thing for granted. We hope to bring more interest into the game and more attention to how useful it can be for different social groups. We don’t think that this is going to be a one-off major chess event in the country.”