Why the 2024 World Chess Championship may be the biggest one yet
The 2024 World Chess Championship is set to kick off this week, a showdown between 18-year-old Gukesh Dommaraju of India and reigning champion Ding Liren of China.
One of the world’s biggest sporting competitions got underway Monday morning, with reigning champion Ding Liren taking game 1 of the World Chess Championship against 18-year-old phenom Gukesh Dommaraju.
While the world championship is still considered chess' marquee event, the absence of Norway’s Magnus Carlsen, the five-time champion who declined to defend his title in 2022, looms large.
Grandmaster David Howell, a close friend of Carlsen’s who is also one of the official match commentators in Singapore, believes the world championship still holds a special place in the chess world, but said this year is unique.
“For a long time, it’s been the one thing that defines what has been otherwise quite a disorganized tournament system,” Howell said. “Normally, the world championship is very successful at finding and celebrating the best player in the world. It’s still got a lot of prestige, but this year it’s a bit of a strange one.”
In some ways, the $2.5 million showdown between Liren, a soft-spoken assassin from China, and Gukesh, an up-and-coming prodigy from India, should be the biggest world championship yet.
Rating: 5