China's world champion Ding Liren, 32, and his Indian rival Gukesh Dommaraju, 18, the youngest ever title challenger, will meet for the opening ceremony of their $2.6m 14-game title match in Singapore on Saturday. The first game is scheduled to start at 9am GMT (17.00 local time) on Monday.

This marks the 50th contest for the crown since 1886, and the first time both contestants are Asian. Historically, the No1 player of the time almost always participated, but not in 2023 or 2024. Currently, Gukesh ranks No5, while Ding is at No23. The world champion has not won a single classical game since January. Gukesh is the 1-5 odds favorite, with Ding at 10-3 against.

Magnus Carlsen, the game's dominant player who abdicated last year after a decade as champion, will be in Singapore but only as a spectator for the first few games. Carlsen's view: "Gukesh is a significant favorite, and if he strikes first, he will win without any trouble. However, the longer it goes without a decisive game, the better it is for Ding, because he has the ability but lacks confidence."

Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana, the US champion and world No2, are also competing in Singapore in a two-game mini-match of Freestyle Chess on 21-22 November. Carlsen leads 1-0. A five-tournament Freestyle Tour has been announced for 2025, with a $750,000 prize fund for each event.

Carlsen has been comfortable with his decision to relinquish his classical title, focusing instead on rapid and blitz chess. The outcome of Ding v Gukesh hinges on whether Ding, who has not played in public since August, can regain his pre-pandemic strength. Ding was a favorite before the pandemic, with a 100-game unbeaten streak in 2017-18, a record surpassed by Carlsen's 125.

Ding took a law degree at Peking University but saw his chess career suffer due to the pandemic. He took several months off in 2023 due to mental illness, and his 2024 form has been marked by hesitancy. Despite these challenges, Ding leads his head-to-head against Gukesh in classical games, with two wins, one draw, and no losses.

In a Fide pre-match interview, Ding acknowledged his poor current form but argued that match and tournament play are different. He was the underdog in his 2023 title match with Ian Nepomniachtchi but won with the help of his second, Hungary's Richard Rapport.

Gukesh Dommaraju, the son of an ear, nose, and throat surgeon and a microbiologist, learned chess at seven and became a grandmaster at 12 years seven months, the third youngest in history. He is confident he can handle the match decisions and thinks his age will be an advantage.

Gukesh will stick with Grzegorz Gajewski as his chief trainer. Vishy Anand, India's first world champion, has been Gukesh's mentor but will need to stay neutral as Fide deputy president.

The preliminaries are nearly over: who will win? I expect Gukesh to be cautious in the first few games, then to probe and push hard in the middle of the match. Ding's 2024 form has been so poor that it is difficult to see how he can keep his title. A 7.5-4.5 margin for Gukesh looks about right.

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