The World Chess Championship match between Gukesh and Ding Liren to be held in November-December this year will be fought in Singapore, FIDE announced on Monday.
The World Championship match, to be held between November 20 and December 15, 2024, will see the 18-year-old challenger from India, Gukesh, battle with reigning world champion Ding Liren for a chance to become the youngest world champion ever in history.
“Singapore’s bid was submitted on May 31, 2024, and the inspection of the venues took place on June 11 and 12. Four possible venues are being considered for the Match, and the final decision on the exact location will be announced in due course,” a statement from FIDE read. The match will also witness a prize money of 2.5 million USD.
Gukesh had made history by becoming the youngest player ever — at the age of 17 — to win the eight-player Candidates tournament to win his right to challenge China’s Ding.
“We are delighted that for the first time in the history of FIDE, a match for the World Championship will take place in Singapore. Not only is Singapore one of the most iconic global tourist and business hubs, but it is also a thriving chess center with great ambitions and talent,” FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich said.
New Delhi, Chennai and Singapore were in a three-city race to host the most prestigious event in chess.
The 15-member FIDE Council uses multiple factors to decide the host city of the the World Championship, including “neutrality”.
While this would have favoured Singapore, considering Gukesh will be a home favourite at the other two cities, Chennai or New Delhi, FIDE CEO Emil Sutovsky had mentioned in an interview with The Indian Express that there are other factors that could help override the ‘neutrality’ element.
“If the bids (from Singapore and one of the other two cities) are the same, it gives a serious advantage to Singapore. If one or two other bids are much, much higher in all other senses (in terms of guaranteed revenue that FIDE would get from broadcast and commercial rights) then it compensates for neutrality. We look at a multitude of factors, among those that are important is distribution of rights, neutrality, the level of venue, broadcast and other similar things that would allow the match to not only be important by itself, but also allow the chess world to leverage on it to promote the game in terms of chess fans that would start following the game during the world championship,” he had said.
