Chinese world champion Ding Liren, 32, and his Indian rival Gukesh Dommaraju, at 18 the youngest title challenger ever, meet on Saturday for the opening ceremony of their 2nd title match, $6 million in 14 matches in Singapore, with the first match scheduled to kick off at 9:00 a.m. GMT (5:00 p.m. local time) on Monday.

It will be the 50th contest for the crown since 1886, and the first where both candidates are Asian. The No. 1 player at the time was almost always a participant, but not in 2023 or 2024. Currently, Gukesh is No. 5 in the rankings, while Ding languishes at No. 23. The world champion has not won a single classic match since January. Gukesh is 1-5 odds on the favorite, while Ding is 10-3 odds against.

Magnus Carlsen, the game’s dominant player, who was champion for a decade until his abdication last year, will also be in Singapore, but only as a spectator during the opening matches.

Carlsen’s take on the match: “Gukesh is a big favorite, and if he strikes first, he’ll win easily. However, the longer it goes without a decisive match, the better for Ding, as he has the ability but lacks confidence.”

Carlsen, the world number 1, and Fabiano Caruana, the American champion and world number 2, will also face off in Singapore, in a two-game mini-match on November 21 and 22 of free chess, where the formation of pieces on the last rows are random. arranged. Carlsen leads 1-0. A five-tournament Freestyle Tour has been announced for 2025, with a prize pool of $750,000 for each event.

Carlsen is comfortable with his decision to give up his classic title and the months of preparation required every other year. He has successfully defended it four times, continues to be the world’s best in rapid and blitz, and holds a secure place at the top of chess history alongside or ahead of Garry Kasparov and Bobby Fischer.

The outcome of Ding vs. Gukesh hinges on whether Ding, who hasn’t performed in public since August, can regain some of the strength he had before and up to winning the title. Ding would have been the favorite in his pre-pandemic form until 2019, when he was impeccably strong. His 100-match unbeaten run in 2017-18 was a record at the time, although it has since been surpassed by Carlsen’s 125. He was also creative and imaginative, as this week’s puzzle demonstrates.

Previously, Ding earned a law degree at Peking University, but the pandemic seriously affected his chess career. He was caught up in prolonged lockdowns in his hometown of Wenzhou, which affected his results when he returned to the game. He took several months off from chess in 2023 due to mental illness, and his lack of form in 2024 has been characterized by hesitations in critical moments.

When Ding met Gukesh at the Sinquefield Cup in August he chose 20 Bd3, then sacrificing the bishop and the rook for perpetual check, rather than the obvious 20 Re1, introducing another piece into the attack and preferred by the computer. In other 2024 games, such hesitations have turned favorable positions into defeats.

Despite the many negative omens, Ding leads his one-on-one head-to-head against Gukesh in classic matches, with two wins, one draw noted above, and no losses. HAS Wijk aan Zee in JanuaryDing had a negative score, but one of his two wins was against Gukesh.

In a pre-match interview with Fide, Ding acknowledged his current poor form, but maintained that the match and the tournament “are two different things. When a player starts to get into his rhythm, the way the opponent reacts depends on his experience and how he handles the situation at hand.” Ding was also the underdog in his 2023 title match with Ian Nepomniachtchi, but he won on tiebreaks with help from his runner-up, Hungarian Richard Rapport, who will likely be in Ding’s corner again in Singapore.

How does Ding assess his chances? “My current state is neither exceptionally good nor bad, but I am definitely past the worst times of the last year and a half. I know I played chess really well – I just couldn’t convert certain positions. I believe I can reverse the trend, perhaps during the match.

Gukesh Dommaraju, son of an ear, nose and throat surgeon and a microbiologist, learned chess at age seven and became a prodigy. He became a grandmaster at 12 years and seven months, the third youngest in history, but there was also a controversial incident at Bangkok 2018 when Nigel Short, two pawns ahead, forgot to press his watch and Gukesh jumped up to celebrate the falling of the flag. Gukesh was a very active player as a teenager and progressed quickly. He was the third youngest in history to surpass 2700, the youngest to surpass 2750. He could easily reach 2800 in the world championship match.

Gukesh will remain with Grzegorz Gajewski as head coach. The 39-year-old Pole helped him during last year’s Candidates, where his calm strategy of halving his main rivals and scoring well against the tail finally paid off as he edged out Caruana and Nepomniachtchi by a crucial half point.

Vishy Anand, India’s first world champion, has been Gukesh’s mentor for many years and would normally be available to give him advice during the match, but Anand is also the vice-president of Fide and must therefore remain neutral.

Gukesh is confident he can handle match decisions as they develop. “I’ve played in a lot of high-pressure situations.” He also doesn’t care about the time needed for IT preparation, a factor in Carlsen’s abdication.

“It’s a new experience for me. It’s hard work, but I love it, so let’s see how things go.” He also thinks his age will be an advantage: “I have more energy and it’s easier to stay focused during long tournaments.”

The preliminaries are coming to an end: who will win? I expect Gukesh to be cautious in the first few matches, then probe and push hard in the middle of the match. Ding’s form in 2024 has been so miserable that it is difficult to see how he will be able to retain his title. A margin of 7.5 to 4.5 for Gukesh seems about right.

Who do Guardian readers think will win? Let us know in the comments box.

3947 1….Ne5+!! If 2 Nxe5 Bf5+ 3 Rh5 Kg8/g7+ 4 Bh6 Ng3 mate. If 2 Rh4 Rg8+! 3 Nxh8 Bxg5 mate.