Ding Liren defends his newly-won crown against Gukesh Dommaraju, the youngest challenger ever at age 18. Game 1 begins Monday 25 November 4am EST; Game 14 will be December 12; if necessary, tie-breaking games will be played December 13.
The time control is 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, followed by 60 minutes for the next 20 moves, then 15 minutes for the rest of the game. There’s a 30-second increment per move starting on move 61. Players are not allowed to draw by agreement before move 41.
https://lichess.org/broadcast is one way to follow the games live. For practical purposes, critical action will occur 7.15-8am EST.
Ding is the 17th World Chess Champion of the modern era which begins with the 1886 match featuring chess clocks. The lineage is Steinitz-Lasker-Capablanca-Alekhine-Euwe-Botvinnik-Smyslov-Tal-Petrosian-Spassky-Fischer-Karpov-Kasparov-Kramnik-Anand-Carlsen-Ding. Alekhine regains the crown two years after losing it and dies with it in 1946. Botvinnik becomes champion in 1948, losing to Smyslov and Tal but winning each compulsory rematch as was customary to chess (and boxing) at the time. Fischer and Carlsen abdicate.
This match is notable as the first all-Asian WCC.
The combined purse is $2.5m with the split featuring as complicated a formula as I’ve ever seen in professional sports. Fischer’s $5m prize back in 1992 remains out of reach.
