If you’re in Singapore and weren’t really clued up on the happenings in the chess world, there’s no way you’d know that there is a World Championship scheduled to begin in the city in two days’ time.
Clearly, chess isn’t really a sport for the masses, particularly not in Singapore, just yet. But it is still a significant event. It is the first time in 45 years that the world championship has come to south-east Asia, after the 1979 edition, which was held Baguio in the Philippines. It’s also the first time ever that the world championship will be contested between two Asian players.
Ding Liren and D Gukesh. China and India. There’s a lot of these two countries in Singapore, and that’s why FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich says, “from [a] FIDE perspective, immediately after the Candidates, we wanted to host this match in Singapore.” The CEO of the Singapore Chess Federation, GM Kevin Goh, too said that hosting this world championship was on his radar right away.
It’s a period when Singapore is looking to make its mark on the world stage in hosting major sports events. They nearly won the bid to host the World Athletics Championships in 2023 but lost out to Budapest. They will host the World Aquatics Championship next year. The biggest football clubs around the world are often here for pre-season. This is a nation that is now demanding that the best in world sport come and strut their stuff in their world class facilities.
For both Gukesh and Ding, the welcome has been exactly as expected, the people have been as warm as the weather has been wet, the monsoon well and truly setting in in the city-state. Ding even spoke of receiving hand-written letters from fans upon his arrival in Singapore.
There hasn’t quite been the excessive in-your-face build-up there was to, say, the Chess Olympiad in Chennai in 2023. There are no painted bridges or hoardings every few hundred metres blaring out that the World Championship is happening. In fact, the hotel in which the press conference happened on Saturday had no signage outside it that would lead anyone to believe such an event was happening inside. That is a difference quite akin to the one between the two protagonists themselves – Gukesh and Ding.
Their demeanours are totally distinct, on the opposite ends of the spectrum: from the way they speak to their (outward) confidence levels. Their endpoint maybe the same, wanting to be world champion — with Ding fighting to retain his crown, Gukesh striving to take it away from him and become the youngest ever world chess champion — but even before the action began at the pre-match press conference at the Capitol Theatre on Saturday evening, the two carried themselves very differently.
Gukesh was all smiles, first with his father Rajnikanth and coach Grzegorz Gajewski and then with several others who wanted to catch the 18-year-old for a minute or so of conversation. Ding kept to himself, sat on one of the chairs reserved for media personnel, not talking to anyone, seemingly alone with his thoughts.
Gukesh did admit to feeling some nerves, but he said he was just very excited to be at this stage. Ding, on the other hand, was a lot more reserved, and spoke of ‘being at peace’ right now, which is progress from a few months ago, when he was battling issues with his mental health.
Those issues have also translated to his form on the board – he hasn’t won a Classical game since January. In that situation, he has needed some inspiration. And he has looked within and at the past. He has taken note of some of the best chess he’s played in the past and has reviewed some of his best games to get back that feeling of what it was to be at his best.
Ding also spoke of the need to forget the other things in his personal life and just focus on chess. Gukesh, on the other hand, shrugged off any suggestions of him having a life outside of chess. Ding said he’d prepared in earnest only for the last three weeks. Gukesh said this was the only thing in his head since winning the Candidates tournament in April. Ding joked about how his coach calls him lazy because of his refusal to remember a lot of things, while Gukesh said he’s enjoyed the process, saying that it has helped him learn new things every day.
There was one moment, though, which showed Ding is still very much aware of what he’s capable of. That was when he made sure to mention – while sitting not far away from Gukesh – that he is the more experienced player in this match. It’s not just his overall chess experience that will play a part, but also the Chinese’s experience of last year’s World Championship, where he dealt with many a hurdle on his way to the crown.
The cards, though, seem to have fallen nicely in Gukesh’s favour, with him having picked the white pieces for the first game, which is on Monday. It is an opportunity for Gukesh to seize the early initiative in the match, even though Ding is no stranger to being behind, having come back from an almost hopeless position at the halfway stage of last year’s world championship match against Nepomniachtchi.
“Everyone will choose to win first, but the one who wins last has the biggest smile,” Ding said with a chuckle.