World Chess Championship 2024: How did Ding Liren qualify for the final against Gukesh?

Gukesh secured his place as a challenger after becoming the youngest winner of the FIDE Candidates tournament earlier this year.

File photo: Ding Liren will begin his World Chess Championship title defence on November 25. | Photo Credit: AFP

Ding Liren will begin his World Chess Championship title defense against challenger D. Gukesh on November 25 in Singapore.

The 14-game World Championship match is slated to be played with the time control of 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 30 minutes for the remaining moves, and a 30-second increment starting from move 41.

Gukesh secured his place as a challenger after becoming the youngest winner of the FIDE Candidates tournament in April this year in Toronto, Canada.

How did Ding Liren qualify for the World Chess Championship 2024 final?

China’s Liren became the world champion after defeating Russian Ian Nepomniachtchi in the fourth rapid game of the first tie-breaker during last year’s final in Astana, Kazakhstan.

Liren reached the final despite not winning the Candidates tournament after then-world champion Magnus Carlsen withdrew from the match against Nepomniachtchi.

Following this, the world chess governing body decided to conduct a World title match between the top two players at the Candidates, Nepomniachtchi and Ding, ranked second and third respectively in the world.

After the opening game was drawn, it was Nepomniachtchi who drew first blood, winning the second. Ding did the catching up in remarkable fashion in the remaining games and equalised for one last time in the 12th game and the next two were drawn.

With the score tied at 7-7, the tie-breakers (rapid) had to be played. The first three games were drawn and Ding won the fourth. He became the first male Chinese player to win the world championship