Dommaraju Gukesh is only 18 years old and can become the king of the chess world. However, India’s hopes surprisingly lost the opening game of the World Cup against the weak defending champion Ding Liren.
The 18-year-old grandmaster Dommaraju Gukesh from India lost the first game in the final of the World Chess Championship. Against defending champion Ding Liren from China, Gukesh, who was actually the favorite, threw his hands in front of his face after 42 moves and gave up in exasperation. The youngster had previously made a few mistakes under time pressure. Liren now leads 1-0 in the best-of-14 mode.
When leaving the Resort World Sentosa – the hotel where the World Cup is being played – on the island of Sentosa, which belongs to Singapore, Liren then met his mother, who congratulated the defending champion with a sober handshake. She also knows that it will be a long fight for her son.
Experts believe Gukesh has a good chance of becoming the youngest world champion in history. His opponent Liren has not won a classical chess game since January 2024 and, according to his own statement, is struggling with mental problems. “I’m worried that I could lose a lot,” Ding explained before the first game at the World Cup.
Gukesh wants to replace Kasparov
His young opponent, on the other hand, recently led the Indian national team to gold at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest, winning eight out of ten games. The youngest ever world champion, Garry Kasparov, was 22 years old when he became world champion in 1985.
The World Cup will be held until December 15th. Ding and Gukesh compete against each other in a maximum of 14 classic games. A win gives you one point, a draw gives you 0.5 points. Whoever gets 7.5 points first is the world champion. If the score is 7:7, it goes to the tiebreak, in increasingly shorter times. The first player to collect 7.5 points is the world chess champion and receives the majority of the prize money of $2.5 million. The second final game takes place this Tuesday.
rc with dpa
