Chess enthusiasts around the world are tuning in as game one of the World Chess Championship 2024 match got underway on Nov. 25.
The game of chess was a top Google search trend in the past day with China’s Ding Liren defending his world chess championship title against India’s Gukesh Dommaraju.
Game 1 of the FIDE World Championship Match 2024, presented by Google, under 90 seconds! ♟️ ????#DingGukesh pic.twitter.com/Z0o562d14Y
— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) November 25, 2024The 2024 championship is being played in Singapore and consists of 14 games and the first person to reach a score of 7.5 wins the title. In case of a tie after 14 games, the match will conclude with a tiebreaker consisting of rapid games. The event started Monday, Nov. 25 and is scheduled to continue until Sunday, Dec. 15.
This is the first time in 138 years that the world championship match is being played by two competitors from Asia, the International Chess Federation (known by its French acronym FIDE) said.
Besides the title itself, there is $2.5 million (U.S.) in prize money, which will be split between both players.
Defending champion Ding scored the Game 1 victory on Monday.
Who are the competitors?Ding, 32, is a Chinese chess grandmaster who won his first Chinese chess championship at age 16 — the youngest player to do so — according to a bio on chess.com. He’s won three Chinese chess titles in total as well as many world events. He won the 2023 FIDE world championship against Ian Nepomniachtchi.
Dommaraju, 18, (who often goes by his first name, Gukesh) is an Indian chess grandmaster and the third-youngest grandmaster in history. He’s also the youngest-ever challenger for the world championship in chess’s history, according to his profile on chess.com.
The FIDE world chess championship match, which is sponsored by Google, is available to stream on YouTube.com.
Game 2 will be played Tuesday, Nov. 26, starting at 4 a.m. (Eastern Time)
You may also watch previous games on fide.com.
It’s hard to pinpoint any one reason to the game’s growing popularity, but there have been a few things that stand out in recent years.
The 2020 hit Netflix show, “The Queen’s Gambit,” starring Anya Taylor-Joy, based on a 1938 novel by Walter Tevis, certainly springs to mind. The fictional miniseries focused on an orphaned chess prodigy who set out to become the world chess champion.
Neat fact: parts of the show were filmed in Cambridge, Ont. You can check out the story below.
An article on Polygon.com from 2023 suggests that chess is surging in U.S. schools and chess.com, which allows people to play the game online, has millions of active users.
Don’t forget the Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo commercial for Louis Vuitton in which the two football players play chess.
Plus, according to various online sources, chess grew during the pandemic as people needed a new pastime.
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